Journey Through the Darkness
by Kitsune incarnate
Summary: A famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement being the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket, cannot leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server has unforeseen consequences
1. Capturing the Beast

Hello there, everyone! To those who dont know me, hi, I'm Kitsune incarnate, but you can call me Kit. To those of you who already know me, I'm glad you decided to take a peek at my new story!

Journey Through the Darkness is an idea that came to me a few days ago, during a Pokemon RP. I break away from the little kiddie version of Pokemon to look into a different, not so bright and cheerful world, which clearly lies under the surface. This incarnation of the Team Rocket organization is born of my reading into the operations and inner workings of Team Rocket. It is not necessarily true to the organization you find in the series; this version is vastly more powerful, forceful, and technologically advanced than the one you see in the anime. I believe this incarnation is something that Team Rocket could become, something that Giovanni can turn the organization into, since he possesses the needed ruthlessness, drive and cunning required to turn the organization into something more than it is implied that it is. If you dont like it.. well.. remember, this is my vision of what could be, and as such, I cannot be wrong in that regard.

All that seriousness aside, I'd really appreciate feedback, and I hope you enjoy my new fanfic!

Legal stuff: Pokemon and all related characters are copyright Nintendo, Satoshi Tajiri, Pokemon USA, and I believe GameFreaks Inc. This story was not created with the intention to make profit off of the copyrighted works. The plot of the story, however, is mine. All mine. So there. Nyeh.

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

* * *

Journey through the Darkness

Chapter 1: Capturing the Beast

It is around the Mt. Moon area, a full moon is highest in the sky, illuminating the surrounding area with a magnificent light.. The peak of the mountainous area glitters under this brilliant shine, as the song of Clefairy dancing around the moonstone can be heard from miles around. Everything appears to be at peace, the area almost picturesque in its serene tranquility. The surrounding cities of Pewter and Celadon enjoy a quiet slumber, noise broken only by the occasional cry of a nocturnal pokemon, or perhaps a trainer eager to catch pokemon, despite it being the middle of the night. This scene, however, is only the cover of what truly promises to be an eventful night.

It is in a subterranean cave in Mt Moon, however, where action lies. In one of these caves, the path to it well-hidden by a rock wall, a single person sits. He is in a cave, lit only by a lamp plugged into an electric generator. On the walls of this cave, are pinned various news articles detailing a legendary hacker by the net name 'Crimson Pikachu', who had brought down the Hoenn branch of the infamous Team Rocket. These news clippings are from all parts of the world, from the biggest international newspaper, to even the smallest school newspaper. Along with this room, there is a laptop, sitting on a log. White type flies across the black screen, which to any common observer appears to be a complete mishmash of various letters and numbers, without any clear meaning.

However, the typist is not a common observer. A pair of deep, green eyes stare through the lenses of a pair of black, horn-rimmed glasses. These eyes dart back and forth across the screen, studying and processing every bit of information that appears. A pure red bang, a color contrast to his otherwise stark black hair, moves in front of his face. With a gust of breath, he blows the obstruction away, and continues on with his typing. He glances briefly over his shoulder in a paranoid fashion, before looking back, typing with rapidity again. These actions are of the legendary hacker, known to all as the Crimson Pikachu, but to himself as Nathaniel Williams.

He grew up alone, neglected by his parents, finding comfort in a computer. Because of this, he grew up entirely with computers, most of his time spent picking them and programs apart. At the age of sixteen, he first ventured into the world of hacking, making a name for himself after he cracked into the Pokeball Delivery System, for fun sending Rattatas and Pidgeys to high-profile trainers. At the age of seventeen, he was single-handedly responsible for causing the Stock Market Crash, where he altered the computer systems to show stock prices vastly plummeting, causing chaos to occur. At the end of the day, he returned everything to normal, but left behind what would be his trademark symbol, a Pikachu face in a crimson circle, earning him the title of Crimson Pikachu. After that bit of chaos, he turned his attention to poking at small companies and organizations, testing the creation of his hacking programs, which were able to breach system defenses, where he would then be able to directly interact with computers on data servers, a system which he later developed enough to assist in his greatest achievement, the fall of Team Rocket Hoenn. After this, he disappeared for over a year. Now nineteen, and with a completed hacking program, he figured now would be THE time to enter the history books for good: he would try to bring down the Team Rocket organization at its core.

And that is what brings us to this particular night. He sits at the computer, and sighs, before nodding, and typing. "Executing hacking program X-257591 Delta." he says, for some reason preferring to say what he's doing, whilst he does it, though nobody is around to listen, and voice activation was not a computer feature. "Objective specified. Search database for racketeering information, illegal business practices, illegal research. Copy all files to hard drive. Watch out for security measures.." he mutters, as he continues typing. "Come on, come onnnnn.." he mumbles. "It shouldn't take this long., especially for me!"

That night, at the Kanto Team Rocket HQ…

As with the rest of this section on the pokemon world at this hour, it is quiet. However, not all activity at the headquarters has ceased. Outside a set of hydraulically-powered, wood-painted double doors indicating Giovanni's office, a certain blonde-haired, black-outfitted receptionist sits, drumming her fingers on her desk in a bored fashion. The female is known as Melissa, a young girl of average build and height. Nothing about her particularly stands out, other than the fact that she's similar in appearance to Agent 009, Domino. In fact, their similarity in appearance is so great, that anyone who doesn't see her on a regular basis could easily confuse her with the top agent, which angers her to a rather large degree. Fortunately, the people who would talk to her are few and far between. She is the secretary, yes, however, she works the nightshift. Too afraid to be in the midst of the danger of a Team Rocket operative, she chose a desk job, figuring she'd at least have some fun. Mistaken she was however, when she realized it involved her staying up all hours of the night, answering phones, the usual boring stuff like that. There was one good thing about her job. She had tons of free time, which she spent doodling on official Team Rocket stationary.

However, something different happens tonight. Something exciting. On her computer screen, sits a list of all of the areas in the Team Rocket base. It is a rather long list, detailing over fifty different divisions and locations. Normally, all of the lights next to the names are green, however this time, a light is flashing red, indicating something is amiss.

The cause of the red light: a room in Team Rocket Headquarters' seventh sublevel. This room houses two massive supercomputers, which contain the TRAINSS system. In addition, it holds at least seven computers, responsible for storing all data having to do with the Team Rocket organization. Due to the privacy required in keeping the operations of most branches of he headquarters unknown to the other, there is one server computer for each division of the organization, not including the computers needed to store data on personnel, security clearances, and the like. There are four basic computers, sitting on four basic desks, with four highly-ranked members of Team Rocket sitting at them. There is a fifth in a clear-walled office, sitting at a substantially higher-end computer in comparison to the four counterparts. Obviously, the person there was either the leader or overseer of the others.

This person is a male, in his late twenties or early thirties. His eyes are a deep blue, a color in sharp contrast to his stark white hair. Surprisingly enough, this color of hair was not set on by premature grayness, or because of an Albino gene, but was the color of hair he'd naturally been born with. He goes by the name Zane, which was amazingly the thing that made him stand out the least in this organization. Years ago, when he was only in his late teens to early twenties, he had been recruited by Team Rocket during their age of less-than-subtle ways of attaining their goals. He had worked for Silph Co. as a minor programmer, tasked with working out the thousands of bugs in early-age biometric scanning systems. Despite him being excellent at his job, truly a genius behind a keyboard of the non-musical variety, he didn't find the pleasure in working long hours to perfect another's work. His numerous requests that he be placed on a project had, however, been denied. On the side, however, he had secretly been working on a security system able to outdo early biometric scans. Using his personal computer and work software, he had secretly gotten the framework down. During Team Rocket's raid on the building, his work had been discovered and Giovanni, recognizing how truly skilled he was, personally convinced him to join the Organization, promising unlimited funds and technology in exchange for his perfection of the security system. Though Team Rocket hadn't fit anywhere into his plans for a job, he was highly receptive of Giovanni's clear eye for talent, and as such, agreed under the condition that he always be in charge of operations involving the system.

The system Zane had developed, is named TRAINSS, an acronym for Team Rocket Advanced Intelligent Network Security System. It is a highly intelligent system, with full AI, yet is not self-aware. It had been built from the ground up to be completely integrated with Team Rocket's computer networks, providing an unprecedented level of security. In fact, it was predicted that the only reason the Crimson Pikachu had been able to bring down the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket, was because the servers had only been up and running for a few months. Because of this coincidentally being around the same time TRAINSS had been in the process of an upgrade to , integration with the system could not be achieved.

The system is capable of storing knowledge of all normal activities observed through security cameras, biometric scans, and records taken of all past computer actions. It is also capable of recognizing inconsistencies, and gauging whether or not they're the result of security risk, with over a ninety-nine percent rate of success. However, though it gauges the risk, it does not take direct action. Depending on the calculated risk to security, either the four to six workers (depending on the branch) or Zane will be alerted, which Zane would then pass the information onto Giovanni himself, who would take action from there. Only the largest and most threatening levels of system security would go directly to Giovanni himself, and as such, Giovanni had to me informed of how to properly interact with TRAINSS' AI. Any changes that would need to be made to the system, such as the addition or removal, or changing of duties or clearances of personnel, had to be directly approved by Giovanni, before being input by Zane. Giovanni found this process annoying, yet was fully understanding of the necessity of it.

Though the reasons behind the security risks were only known to the security personnel, Zane, and of course Giovanni himself, members of Team Rocket who worked inside the building where the risk is apparent, were always alerted to the risk, via a list of the various sections of Team Rocket displayed on a screen of some kind. Next to the every name on the list, is a light, which changes from green to red in the presence of a risk. It seemed rather simple, but was very effective in keeping the members on their toes. It is now that one of those green lights turns to red. A look of surprise clearly comes over Zane's face, as a message flashes on the screen, accompanied by a computerized voice.

Meanwhile, behind the grand double doors, the leader of the organization, ironically named Giovanni Boss, sits on a rather lush and expensive, yet ergonomic chair, which shape serves to only accentuate his intimidating look. He leans forward, elbows resting on a fine oak desk. Tonight, was the anniversary of the disappearance of Jessie's mother, Miyamoto. Through his mother's actions, Miyamoto had vanished while on a search for Mew in the mountains and because of that, he found himself sleepless on this night.. Despite his general tough exterior and uncaring attitude, he found himself somewhat sympathizing with Jessie. Not only was his mother responsible for Jessie's mother's disappearance, but he knew what it was like to basically grow up without a mother. Because of this, he found himself unable to fire her, no matter how badly they messed up. He also knew that she would likely not work with anyone but James, given their history, and as such had to keep the other two as well.

His thoughts of the past, however, are interrupted, as the unmistakable noise of a phone ringing fills the air. The source: his videophone, another technology adapted and improved upon from existing technology. Videophones developed by his organization worked similar to cellular phones. No wires were needed to connect a caller and a receiver, eliminating the ability to wire tap. Different levels of encryption were able to be put on a video call, arranged by TRAINSS, so calls could be monitored yet protected by the same time. The different encryptions also enabled the system to categorize the various calls made by their position in the organization, another security measure. Though his calls were usually patched through by his secretary, he found this one to be coming directly from the Security Room, from TRAINSS itself. He was surprised at this, but more that there was a large enough security risk that he required direct contact. His anger at the interruption of his quiet time is quickly removed, as he pushes the green button near the screen.

A red line over a black screen appears, similar to one you see on an ECG monitor, or some sort of audio level measuring device. Though this would confuse most, Giovanni instantly realized it as TRAINSS' 'face'. There are sharp peaks and valleys that appear on the line, as it begins to speak to him, in a voice eerily human-like, yet rather androgynous. "Emergency alert! Emergency alert!" it exclaims, the line glowing slightly to convey that it really is an emergency. "A hacking attempt on the Team Rocket's main computer server is currently in the process. Data about the hacking of the Hoenn servers indicate that there is a ninety-eight point seven three four one eight two five percent chance this is a result of the actions of the Crimson Pikachu. I currently have him hacking a simulated dummy server, however his hacking skills are of an unprecedented level of expertise. I can only keep him fooled for so long before he quits. Further instructions are required.

A visible dark grin spreads across Giovanni's face, as he slams his fist against the table. He lets out a laugh so chilling, Articuno itself would find its self shivering if it were in earshot. This was the moment he was waiting for. He knew in his very soul that this 'Crimson Pikachu' would be foolish enough to try again, not be smart and be happy with what he'd done, as dumb luck as it had been. His eyebrow less brows twitch, as he leans back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head. "If you can trace him to his source, do it!" he says, as he stands. "Keep him fooled for as long as you can. If he starts to figure it out, purposefully leak information so it looks like he's breaking through your defenses. Once you have, alert the field operates I gather to the exact location and coordinates, and make sure I'm notified immediately upon their return. I have something.. special.. in mind for the fool." says and, without a word, ends communication. He sits down again, and presses a button on his desk. The lighting of his room changes so his face and most of his upper body become a silhouette. A small device appears over the mouthpiece of the videophone: the voice scrambler. He places a call to the section of Team Rocket responsible for housing his field operatives..

A few hours later, back at the base of Mt. Moon..

It is still very silent at the ground floor of Mt. Moon. However, this silence, doesn't last for long. There is a low rustle, as a team of about five black-dressed Team Rocket individuals shuffle through the floor. They are dressed in so much high-tech gear, they have an appearance similar to some form of high-tech super soldier, each carrying six pokeballs, visors capable of night vision, thermal scan, and magnification, and police-grade, semi-automatic rifles reminiscent of the classic M1 Garanbull. Weapons were highly rare in the world of pokemon, because everyone from little kids to grand organizations had the power of pokemon on their side, rendering firearms worthless and unneeded. Even Giovanni was hesitant to use firearms, because he thought they were an unnecessary load on his operatives. However, these circumstances were special. Because of the fact that the Crimson Pikachu was an expert hacker, they reaction time they needed to capture him would have to be very high. The time estimated for even the quickest release of a pokemon from dormant state is two to four seconds before they could be a good threat, due to the need for the pokemon to form from a beam of energy. The time needed to go from holding a rifle in carrying mode, to ready fire mode, was between half a second to a second for people skilled with the firearm and, because of this, needed that faster reaction time. They group move in highly tactical formation, towards the hidden door. The leader of the room, shown by the golden, yet small patch of R on his shirt, gives hand signals, as he moves forward. He puts his hand on his head to switch to thermal scanning, as he nears the doorway.

He quickly moves over to the doorway and, in a swift motion, kicks it in. He rushes down the dark passageway, switching from thermal imaging to night vision, and goes on until he reaches the room, where he then switches back to thermal imaging. He aims his rifle at the head of the human-shaped heat source, as an small, yet audible click is heard in the silence, the sound of the safety being turned off. Four more like clicks are heard, as his subordinates all aim their rifles at various, yet not-lethal targets on the body. The leader closes on e eye to steady his name, and gently tilts his head. "Stand and put your hands in the air, slowly. Refusal to do so will result in live fire being used to disable your ability to function.

A few minutes ago…

The green alphanumeric characters continue to fly across the screen, as Nathaniel continues to type with a sense of urgency. He had been in the Team Rocket's server for a while and, despite the complete success of his hacking program, feared his poking around might soon be discovered. He had managed to get some data, but it was mostly financial statements of no real value. He sensed something was wrong with this, for various reasons: The data transfer rate was too slow for being Team Rocket's main computer, all his poking had yielded few results, and it appears that, despite spending upwards of ten minutes in the system, nobody had tried to interfere with his hacking as they'd done in Hoenn. However, he didn't appear to concerned about these things. Far be it from him to look a gift horse in the mouth, he figured, preferring to spend the time worrying on getting more lucrative information. He continues typing, completely unaware of an approaching threat to his safety. Suddenly, an unfamiliar click breaks the otherwise unnoticeable, to him at least, rhythmic typing. Casting his suspicions aside had only proven to be to his detriment, as he averts his gaze to a mirror attached to the corner of the laptop. This gaze confirmed what he figured to be his worst fear, put onto him by the presence of the click and command.. Team Rocket, as it turns out, had outsmarted him, this time. He had been caught..


	2. Fall of a Legend

Hello again there, readers! Kit here, with Chapter 2 of Journey Through the Darkness

In Ch.2, I explore more into the history and inner workings of the organization, showing how it has the ability to truly twist even the most noble of people, to meet its darkness. In addition, I add some cultural references. Can you spot them?

I'd really appreciate feedback, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!

Legal stuff: Pokemon and all related characters are copyright Nintendo, Satoshi Tajiri, Pokemon USA, and I believe GameFreaks Inc. This story was not created with the intention to make profit off of the copyrighted works. The plot of the story, however, is mine. All mine. So there. Nyeh.

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

* * *

Journey Through the Darkness

Chapter 2: Fall of a Legend

Time nearly seemed to stop in those few seconds following the realization of his position. For a second, he thought perhaps he had been hallucinating, possibly the stress of what he's doing creating some sort of physical manifestation. Any suspicion of that is quickly wiped however, as he glances slightly over his shoulder, staring right down the barrel of the rifle. Unfortunately, he had not prepared for such a situation. His entire world revolved around computers, as that was his only skill. Hiding was his secondary ability, however, It had proved useless here. To him, a hole underground would be enough, for multiple reasons, the main one being who would find him in such a location? He was severely limited when it came to funds, and was even more limited when it came to pokemon training, so what means to defend himself did he have? However, all current thoughts fade to black, as a secondary warning is issued by the apparent leader of the group. He slowly raises his hands to the air, as he stands. "How'd you get me?" he asks, keeping his gaze averted forwards

The member next to the leader steps forward as he grabs Nathaniel's wrist, displaying no gentility in his treatment of the new prisoner. He roughly pulls his wrist down and behind his back, before doing the same with the other. He secures him with a special set of handcuffs, designed for the Team Rocket organization by Zane himself. These handcuffs are twice as thick as your regular handcuffs, but for good reason. First off, these handcuffs would deliver a bit of a shock if a certain pulling force were felt on the chain connecting them, almost guaranteeing the wearer would not try to escape. Secondly, the handcuffs had a biometric lock, requiring the thumbprint of the owner of the handcuffs, or that of a superior officer, to be able to open the lock.

The use of this required two powerful lithium ion battery, one to power the scanner and recognition chip, and the other to power the shock, and as such, handcuffs needed to be charged after the lock had been engaged or after at least two shocks had been delivered. Basically, because of the power required, the handcuffs could be used up to four times under usual circumstances, enabling two arrests between charges. Of course, in case the power were to die for some reason or another, there had to be an emergency release. This emergency release is located under thumbs scanning area, easily opened by prying it off using something very fine and sharp, and pressing the manual release switch. Though it seemed like much of a hassle, it was actually a fairly easy thing to do, for those experienced in the way the handcuffs had worked. Not every member of Team Rocket were granted access to this technology. Only advanced members sent on 'retrieval' missions were provided, and as such, were usually the best of the best.

Nathan glances over his shoulder with a scowl, not taking kindly to being handled so roughly. A second thought that entered his mind was the great annoyance that his questions wouldn't be answered so quickly. However, once he turned his head and found himself staring down the barrel of the M1 Garanbull aimed right between his eyes, he looks forward again. As much as he hated to admit It even now, he was very, very caught. He would have to think of a way to sneak out later, but for now, he would highly prefer to live to see another minute, rather than to resist now and be bringing his fists to a five-on-one fight. He had no martial arts training of any kind, now regretting that he didn't train at the Fighting Dojo of Saffron City when he had the chance. On the other hand, what could he do? He had something in mind. If he had been trained, the most 'logical' choice would be to do a back kick right into the guy's chin, while simultaneously grabbing his rifle and falling forward. He would then roll onto his stomach, and fire the rifle off rather quickly, using only his toes. Well, it seemed logical enough to him at least. He watched too many kung fu master flicks. In reality, he had no such chances of escape, and as such, quite reluctantly went along with his capturers for now.

The leader lowers his rifle, sensing the surrender of the mark, as he turns away. He raises his left hand up to his head, pinky at his mouth, thumb at his ear, appearing to be making the classic 'call me' gesture. However, in reality, he is really placing a call. Unlike TRAINSS and the handcuffs, this technology had not been developed by Zane, but was instead put out by the Research and Development section of Team Rocket Kanto. Inspired by fake products used to promote the science fiction show Discovery, one of the technicians in that division devised a similar system. A high-quality microphone similar to what's used to wire people in television shows, is connected via a small wire under a glove, to a device. This device, encased in high-impact plastic, is located on the back of the hand as to not interfere with usual operations. It utilizes technology similar to the one found in the pokegear to place a call to one of five pre-programmed numbers over an doubly-encrypted line. To prevent line hacking, the call can only be received by a person with the decryption capabilities tuned to the specific encryption of the signal. The earpiece of this device is strapped around the thumb, and is activated by simply pressing the thumb and pinky together, and saying a number between one and five, which corresponds to the programmed number. Pressure pads turn on the device, which automatically turns off if no number is said within two seconds of activation, to prevent accidental calling.

The leader speaks directly with Giovanni, informing him of the successful capture of the Crimson Pikachu. He motions with his other hand, causing the one of the other members to hit him in the back of the knees with his rifle, knocking Nathan off of his feet, a process he found rather painful, and he let them know it with a rather audible yelp. He and the handcuffing member pick him up, and carry him off, the others following quickly behind. They carry him away, out of the building, to a waiting vehicle. Despite it being a Team Rocket vehicle, this was used for when they needed to travel in the open, yet at the same time be undercover. Technology to produce invisibility, something that would be highly to stealth movement's benefit, was nowhere near completion. Though faux invisibility could be achieved via a device used to bend light rays around a person or object, this proved rather ineffective, as should the object move too rapidly, the bending technology would not be able to keep up, either showing ripples in the light, or complete visibility. Thermal imagery equipment and regular poke-noses could also detect an 'invisible' object, thus rendering existing technology virtually useless. This vehicle was one of the ones they had planned on testing it on, but didn't, as if they did, it would have stood out more as something villainous, rather than an innocent-looking passenger van.

They carry him into the back of this van, using a regular set of handcuffs to secure him to a metal seat used for captured individuals. Three of the five people sit on rather plush, comfy-looking, black-upholstered seats and buckle themselves in, while the leader and second in command take driver and passenger seats. The leader of the group starts the engine of this van, and drives off at a high rate of speed into the night, towards the southeast of Cerulean City.

At Team Rocket headquarters..

Just the mention of Team Rocket brings up thoughts of great evil and dark, dim buildings in the minds of most people. As such an evil yet powerful organization, one would expect the ground floor of Team Rocket to be filled with armed guards at all times, with maybe one or two elevators and a few doors that lead off into the various areas of the organization's base. The thought of metal detectors, thermal imaging scanners, and frisking may also come to mind, as assuredly, such a high tech organization wouldn't be stingy about ground floor security; after all, what kind of dark organization wouldn't want the highest amount of security and displays of power in just their ground floor alone? To all those not of the organization, these are the images of the entryway to Team Rocket.

However, these mental images are incorrect.

In fact, the ground floor more resembles the lobby of a fancy hotel, than some sort of stereotypical dark base of evil. White marble columns reach up two stories at least, to the towering ceilings of the lobby, standing in great contrast to the black marble walls, and crimson marble flooring, all kept in pristine condition. There are many decorative plants arranged in an aesthetically appealing array. A velvet, black carpet extends from the easy opening double doors, past a good amount of red and white, expensive chairs, some black-painted oak tables, all the way to an old-fashioned yet modernly-designed oak desk. Behind this desk, a receptionist sits, ready to greet any who inquire about something with a friendly smile and a warm hello. On the back wall above her, there is a single, massive, red R, as one might expect. The entire area is lit up by two crystalline chandeliers, hanging high above the ground floor. The addition of two ceiling to floor waterfalls about halfway through the lobby add to the beauty, as the light reflects off them, creating a breathtaking rainbow effect. Towards the back of the lobby, down branching paths, are elevators and doors, monitored by security cameras hidden in the waterfalls and chandeliers, and protected from unauthorized entry by biometric scans.

It is just inside this lobby that Giovanni himself stands, arms behind his back, chest sticking out, a dark grin across his face. It was rare for him to stand in plain view of the members of his organization, as he preferred to keep people on their toes by remaining a rather mysterious figure shrouded in darkness, but today was special. As he explained to anyone who had the nerve to inquire, he had a special guest he expected to arrive soon, whom he wanted to greet personally. However, the amount of people that used the lobby for foot traffic had grown since his appearance, as since rumor spread of his appearance, members had been swarming just to take a look. Because of this, and because of the need to retain a certain level of secrecy, all foot traffic had been redirected. This left only two people in the lobby. The friendly receptionist, allowed to stay because of appearance reasons, and of course, Giovanni.

It is not too much longer, before a certain van pulls up in front of the lobby. The elite team climb out of the vehicle, quite literally dragging a kicking Nathaniel into the building. They drag him over, and stand him up, facing Giovanni, whilst simultaneously jamming the rifle into his back as a way of saying 'any unexpected movements and you might be missing an organ or two'. The leader steps forward, and nods once. "Sir. As requested, we have retrieved the Crimson Pikachu. As per your directions, we are releasing him into your custody, and your custody alone." he says, as one of the other members of the team releases the biocuffs. The group of them step back, and turn around, exiting the building to return to their duties. None of them wait around for Giovanni to say another word, as none of them need to. They all knew exactly what to do, because of the last conversation. Giovanni's continual silence had indicated he had no further use for them at that moment.

Nathaniel rubs his wrists a little, as he lets out a low growl. Being forcefully abducted like this was bad enough, and being shoved in here was even worse. He was quite angry, angry enough to be somewhat blind of his surroundings. It is only after a few minutes, that he glares up at Giovanni's intimidating frame. The realization of where he is and who this man is immediately strikes him. "Giovanni." he says, unintentionally. He had found out from his bringing down of Team Rocket Hoenn, that Giovanni was the leader of the Team Rocket organization. By things he'd read, Giovanni appeared to be an eyebrow-less, towering figure whose gaze could send chills down the spine of any who dare to look at him. However, despite feeling this chill first-hand by gazing at his face, he felt a certain determination. After all, he was free now, and all that stood between him and freedom was some old man. If hacking television broadcast feeds had taught him anything, it had been that everyone has a weak spot. If he could manage to land one solid punch, right on the big guy's chin, he could likely knock him out and take him hostage. Filled with a strange sort of resolve at his very desperate, not well thought out, stupid plan, he steps forward, and attempts a strong uppercut.

His attempts at the uppercut don't go quite as well as he intended. Giovanni, despite probably being in his early forties, was by no means some average guy. Under the business suit, there was in fact a very muscular physique, achieved from devoting at least one weekend a month to intense training including, but not limited to, boxing with pokemon and cliff diving with Aerodactyl, a time he refers to as 'nature retreats'. The punch doesn't get anywhere close to making contact as, as soon as it reaches his chest, he grabs Nathaniel by the wrist, stopping the attack instantly. Though he could've easily let it be at that, he, determined to show that no punk could dare raise a fist against him and get away with it, turns and, in one fluid motion, pulls the arm over his head. With the arm, goes a very surprised Nathaniel, however this surprise quickly gives way to intense pain Giovanni slams him square onto his back on the cold, marble floor, an action strong enough to make his glasses fly clean across the lobby.

Giovanni brushes his hands together in a 'cleaning off' motion, and glares down at him. "You're even more of a fool than I thought you to be." he says, his voice a combination of disdain, intrigue, and even the slightest tone of disappointment. "It's unfortunate. For a second, I truly considered offering you a position in my organization. After all, it's not everyday some punk kid cracks one of the most secure systems in the world. How unfortunate of you to go and do something stupid like this. I give you my word, you will regret trying to cross me." he says as he walks off towards the receptionist, leaving Nathaniel twitching, and gasping for air. There is an audible crunch, as Giovanni crushes his glasses into many pieces, though the intentionality of this action could not be known. He stops at the desk, and places his hands on it, giving the receptionist a very serious look. "Contact the Research and Development level. Inform them that there is a new person on the first floor, who requires 'special treatment'. Make sure they bring a sedative, because this kid will assault if given the chance. I will be there in ten minutes to personally oversee this procedure." he states, his voice now containing an eerie quality that strikes the same feeling as when he speaks through the voice scrambler. He walks over to the elevator without another word, as the receptionist, scared out of her mind yet trying her best not to show it, calls the R&D division after regaining her composure.

Team Rocket Base: Research and Development Level

On the fourth sublevel of Team Rocket Kanto, sits an entire floor dedicated to research and development, mostly centered around scientific and mechanical engineering breakthroughs. Giovanni's mother, Madame Boss, had never considered investing Team Rocket's funds into some form of R&D division, relying on sheer force and strength of will to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, this was mostly to the organization's detriment. Under her control, team members often found themselves going after the great unknown with nothing but pokemon at their sides, and little in terms of technology. For that reason they lost many of their great members, including Miyamoto, who were often never heard from again, and never found. However, not all the blame could be put on her. She had little in terms of advanced technology to fund, and because of that, likely found little worth trying to discover.

It was in fact Giovanni himself to put funding from Team Rocket's various legal business fronts, such as Pokemon Island or Salon Roquet, to fund an R&D floor. Initially, he had gone his mother's way of doing things: force capture, extort, steal, and run, however, it was during the raid on Silph Co. where he was fully able to appreciate the potential that investigating in technology could bring to the organization. In his time there, before they had to vacate the premises, he witnessed advanced technologies such as teleporting pads, biometric security, advanced computers, everything that would greatly add to the stability of his organization, and in the long run, improve the lifeline of it. It was also the place where he managed to recruit some of the brightest minds around in the fields of computer science. Once the Team Rocket organization grew strong enough to expand into other regions of the world, his amount of funding into scientific advancement increased dramatically.

His first investment into advanced science came shortly after his members recovered an eyelash belonging to the pokemon of legend, Mew. Through research and searching, he managed to come across a man known as Dr. Fuji, a person obsessed with cloning his late daughter, Amber. Seeing the potential in his science to greatly benefit his organization, he offered to fund Dr. Fuji's research, under the condition that he clone the DNA found in the eyelash. While the preparations had been made, Giovanni, concerned over the security and ability to trust Dr. Fuji, had Zane secure the island on which the research facility had been, by integrating the computers there with the early framework of the TRAINSS system. This proved to be more to his benefit as, when Mewtwo, the result of the DNA cloning, attempted to destroy the lab, TRAINSS reacted with force to protect the scientists and research there. However, because Mewtwo was so powerful, and TRAINSS so young, the system could only damage Mewtwo, before being destroyed itself. Luckily for the organization, TRAINSS had managed to store every bit of data from its integration with the computers there, thus rendering the incident not at an entire loss. The rest surrounding Mewtwo, best left for another story.

The data about Dr. Fuji's experiments had provided a giant jumpstart to the Research and Development level. An entire sublevel made entirely of storage had been cleared out. Concrete ceilings, walls, and floors lined with various protective additives had been put in. Machines of all kinds either based off of Dr. Fuji's creations, or based off of creations taken from all over the world had been added. The best minds Giovanni could find in the fields of biology, genetics, chemistry, biomechanics, neurology, and countless other fields had been gathered. Despite success being made in the field of cloning, it proved to be a very dangerous and unprofitable area of research, and as such, cloning experiments were strictly prohibited. However, years have been going into research involving things like nanobots, invisibility, accelerated healing, mass teleportation, and even genetic engineering, with mostly little results. However, Giovanni understood that science itself was a slow process, and as such, was more lenient with getting results as he was with the other divisions.

Similar to the security floor, there are dozens of scientists, all under the watchful eye of one leading scientist. This scientist goes by the name of Doctor Joachim Brightwater, a mid-thirties graduate of the University of Kanto. He stands above most other members at a height of about six feet, seven inches. His hair is a jet black color, which only serves to show off his cold, calculating blue eyes. Unlike the stereotypical smart scientist type, he wore no glasses or contact lenses, just the stereotypical white lab coat and gloves. Similar to Zane, he was a child prodigy, but excelled in the field of science. In fact, his knowledge was such advanced, he was regarded as the go-to person in the fields of genetics, neurobiology, pathology, and artificial cell creation, his knowledge covering both humans and pokemon.

Unlike Zane, however, he was a rather famous scientist, a professor at Pokemon Tech, and earned good money. Through his research, he was the first to discover the cause and effects of the pokerus, one of the few pokemon-restricted diseases, and with that, a way to make the pokemon's immune system fight it off even faster than usual. Also, by studying cells involved in the pokemon immune system, he had been able to create detailed, theoretical cures for many common human ailments, an action which brought him a great amount of prestige However, like Zane, he wasn't satisfied with his job. Though he was able to come up with these cures, he had absolutely no hand in creating them himself, instead being the one the creators went to for assitance. As valuable as his teachings were, and as much as he liked to teach and help, he felt he would rather spend his time in a lab creating things to change the world, than teaching about the finer points of battling or watching things from the background.. Unlike most of the staff of the R&D department, he had approached Giovanni himself. He had heard about how two of the worst students of Pokemon Tech in history, Jessie and James, had managed to make it into the organization, and wondered that if they would let them in, if they had a place for him. Giovanni, well-informed of his fame, accepted him into the organization, immediately appointing him as head of the entire level. With great resources and coworkers at his disposal, he managed to help create minor technologies like the handphone and specialized helmet, but his greatest achievements in the organization would prove to be in genetic research and engineering.

Currently, Joachim is busy at an eighties-styled, yet modern-gutted computer. On the screen, a 3-d model of some form of complex DNA strain is on display. He is busy moving things around on this screen, using the 'tools' at his disposal to alter and flip and rearrange the strain. He types across a keyboard not only containing alphanumeric characters, but strange symbols each representing a protein or the like involved in genetic makeup. The sample of DNA is a 3-d representation of genetic code taken from a Charizard. Joachim is making alterations and additions to this model and, every so often, pressing the 'Render' button, which feeds the information to a program able to read the model, and construct a 3-d computer graphic image of what the DNA would look like post-alteration. Currently, he's trying to compare brainwave patterns taken from pokemon during an evolutionary phase, and compare them with before and after DNA patterns, in order to locate the one or ones that trigger the change in physical form. He has had no definite result yet, but he does have a general idea of where it might be taking place.

The reason behind this research was not purely for scientific breakthrough: he figures that discovering what triggers this would be used to make a serum that would produce an artificial evolution. If he were able to do this, pokemon could be caught fresh from the wild, forced through evolution, then sent off to one of Team Rocket's game corners, thus cutting the cost to produce prizes to near-zero. In addition, he theorized the possibility of a 'Devolution Spray', a chemical that would be absorbed by the pokemon being attacked. This chemical would act on the gene responsible for evolution, and reverse the process on one strand, creating a chemical reaction across all strands that would revert the pokemon to its earliest stage of evolution. This, however, was purely theoretical. He could only do this if different pokemon that evolved shared the same strand of DNA that inhibits evolution. If he were able to perfect such a spray, it could prove to be invaluable to Team Rocket during mass raids, however currently, he found himself years away from being able to test such a thing.

Unlike most of the other members of Team Rocket, who thought pokemon as nothing more than tools and objects to be used then thrown away at the sign of failure, Joachim felt different. He did, in fact, feel so different he flat out refused to use his test serums on regular, everyday, healthy pokemon. This feeling seemed to be contradictory, hypocritical, considering Joachim's work, however the thought that he may be contradicting himself never crossed his mind. Because of this feeling about pokemon, he instead used his test serums on a special group of individuals, hand-picked by Giovanni himself to be given 'special treatment'. In fact, the distinct sound of a vacuum-sealed door suggested he would be meeting another person retrieving 'special treatment' right now. Saving his data, he stands from the computer, calmly walking down the pristine white walkway, to a seven-foot-tall door, leading to a vacuum-sealed room.

This room, referred to all here as the 'Test Chamber', is a room entirely sealed. Oxygen inside is recycled via a machine located somewhere in the ceiling, and could keep the same air breathable for a full twenty-four hour period, before the air would have to be recycled. This prevented any toxins or fumes given off by test liquids from escaping and potentially contaminating the rest of the establishment. The door to this room is large, metal, and protected by hand scan, retinal scan, and voice recognition systems. The walls are white, not able to see through, however there is a room off to the side where observations can take place from behind a one-way mirror. The walls themselves are one foot thick solid steel, the windows: highly reinforced glass. The room underwent a thorough cleansing and checking before and after every test conducted. Inside the room itself, it is lit via ceiling lights fit directly into the tile. There is a compact electric generator in the corner, able to provide power to all internal systems for a full 24 hours, before needing to be recharged. Since this room was for Joachim's research alone, in it sat a surgical bed with heavy duty restraints, an overhead light, the standard operating tools, an ECG monitor, a brainwave monitor, a defibrillator and various other machines used to save a subject who may be experiencing health problems, and sedative-using weapons in case of emergencies.

Currently inside this room, some young guy is being strapped into the bed by two of his assistants. He has a needle sticking out of his neck, a strong indication that a sedative has been used on him. This was not as surprising as the fact that Giovanni himself was standing in the room, arms behind his back, grinning darkly at this kid. Giovanni only sent instructions from his place on high, so he was actually quite curious to find out what the special occasion was for, though his face and demeanor showed little sign of his intrigue. He quickens his pace, entering the room. He stops near the 'bed', and grabs the needle out of his neck, before glancing at Giovanni, his look now conveying inquiry.

Giovanni just stares at the kid, glaring a bit. Though he senses Joachim looking at him, he doesn't return the glance, instead keeping his gaze fixated on the individual in the bed. "I know what you're thinking. Who is he? Well.." He glances at Joachim, finally. "He, is your latest person to receive your 'special treatment'. You may know him. Crimson Pikachu. He was caught earlier this evening, and brought back here. He assaulted me." he states, in a cold, matter-of-fact tone. "However, I have two special requests for this one. One, do not give him a sedative before initiating 'special treatment'. I want him fully conscious of what's going on around him. Only apply the sedative afterwards. Two, do not submit him to your usual line of force evolution tests. They have a tendency to.. incapacitate the subject at hand, and I need him alive and well. I will be watching everything from the Viewing Room. Do you understand?"

Though he did have a few questions for Giovanni, he gave a nod signifying he did, in fact, understand. These questions nagged at his mind, as he exits from the Test Room, heading off to an area where he uses computerized data to create the serums used in the 'special treatment. More questions and concerns continue to fill his mind. Why would Giovanni request he be awake? It's thought that the procedure would be extremely painful to one not under sedation, and could cause the person to seize or enter cardiac arrest. Furthermore, why no serum? Did Giovanni have something special planned for him? He figured so but, preferring to continue his work, decided not to question it. Within seconds, a green liquid appears in a small vial, which Joachim picks up, carrying back to the room. Making sure he and his assistant are in the room, Nathaniel is secured to the table, and Giovanni is out of harm's way, he begins preparations for the injection..

Team Rocket Base: Research and Development Floor: Test Room

A small groan escapes Nathan's lips as his eyes slowly begin to open. In his blurred vision, he sees a dark blob, a lighter blob, and that's about it. He tries to rub his eyes, but finds he is unable to, his arms held in place by an unseen force. The strong, odd smell of a sterilized environment, the distinct, yet somewhat faded sound of a beeping ECG monitor, and a distorted voice leads him to believe he's possibly in a hospital. Though his mind is somewhat clouded, it soon begins to fade, as well as the video and audio distortions. He makes a bit of a noise, as he loops up, seeing surgical lights, and the shadowed face of a doctor and nurse, presumably the blobs. Was his entire Team Rocket experience a dream? He didn't know. However, the more his vision clears, the more he realizes: the surgical lighting above him was in the shape of an R. Though immediately he felt the desire to try to escape, he felt him still quite groggy, and unable to move much, thus rendering him helpless. He just groans again, and tries to talk himself into being able to move.

The doctor shines a light in his eyes, and nods. "Welcome back. You were out for so long, we thought we lost you, like you'd had an allergy to the sedatives." he says, for fun trying his best to sound like an average medical doctor, as he checks his vitals. "Today is your lucky day. Giovanni doesn't seem to want to put you through the full 'special treatment', so all I'm going to do is inject you with this here, we'll see what happens, then I guess your next step will be decided by Giovanni." he says, taking the vial and syringe from the doctor. The vial contains a thick, rather viscous-looking black liquid, of which has the slightest tint of yellow. He draws, with some slight difficulty, the liquid into the syringe, before cleaning out the air bubbles by squirting a little onto a pad. "Now, normally I would explain what happened later, but heck, let's go ahead and go through this now. It should be more fun. This vial here contains artificial cells, designed around the human white blood cell. These cells are designed to spread through the blood stream, killing existing white blood cells. Once the cells are expunged, the artificial cell part dissolves away, and releases a sort of mutagen through the body. This mutagen, based off of the cellular structure of Ditto, targets the specific acids and proteins that make up human DNA, It destroys target strands, replacing them entirely with strands coded into the mutagen and.. well. you'll see what happens from there in a few minutes." he says, as he sticks the needle into his arm, injecting the liquid with a little difficulty. After this is done, he steps back, and prepares the tranquilizer gun, in case the need arises. The nurse, meanwhile, stands next to the defibrillator, prepared to use it in case something happens.

For Nathan, the pain from the injection is immediate. The liquid itself, due to the thickness of it in comparison with his own blood, caused for a rather painful transition. He relaxes a little, though, as that pain resides. However, it's not ten minutes, before a series of sharp pains return. There are audible cracking and popping noises, as inside, his skeletal structure begins to go under a drastic rearrangement. Bones seem to melt away or reshape, mostly retracting in size. On his head, skin is pulled as his ears slowly move to the top of his head, becoming rather elongated. At the same time, muscle and fatty tissue are reshaped, the excess appearing to mysteriously vanish into thin air. His internal organs begin to change form and realign to keep up with this changing skeletal structure, a process that had Nathan practically screaming for bloody murder, at the sheer amount of pain this brought. As his hips realign themselves, the spin pushes out past their intended end, extending the skin along with it. The skin their evens out, thinning into a somewhat reminiscent of a feline. Most of the excess tissue is moved up around the chest area, which has since become more pronounced and pushing out, again in a more feline way. His fingers and toes sort of meld together in a way, as the skin on there hardens and bunches, taking on a leathery, pad-like texture. The pupils of his eyes dilate entirely, until they take up the entire iris. A red color completely overtakes the surrounding white, as the shape of the eye changes to represent something more feline in appearance. His head slopes as the shape of his cranium shifts to suit this new style. As the transformation slows, the pain begins to die down. All of his hair begins to fall out, having to be brushed away by the nurse. Nathan feels a strong itching sensation, as little strands of black fur begin to poke out all over his body. Within seconds, every single inch of skin is covered in black fur of varying lengths, however, some of this black fur changes to yellow, which gently shines with a bioluminescent glow.

It is after this show of bioluminescence, that the transformation finally subsides. Nathaniel, too in-shock by the amount of pain he had been put through, stares upwards at the ceiling, a blank look across his 'face'. Joachim's face appears in his line of vision, smiling slightly, with the smallest hint of a dark satisfaction present. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asks, despite it obviously being rhetorical. "Very nice handiwork, if I do say so myself. Here, why don't you have a look?" he says, as he moves a surgical mirror over his face. In the reflection is that not of Nathaniel, but rather, of an Umbreon with its rings aglow. The only indication that there was even any part of Nathaniel left, were a small few strands of red hair on his head. Despite this being an obvious flaw in the transformation design, it was not entirely unpredicted. Despite Joachim's advancements in genetic engineering, he could not fully extract the human DNA from a subject. Often, they retained human memory, knowledge, and reasoning skills, and even more often they retained a certain trait. The mutagen was based entirely off of Ditto's cellular structure, and as such, could not fully respond to human DNA, likely the purpose for the abnormality. This bothered Joachim not in the slightest, as perfection was not needed with these subjects. In fact, the reason he was so non-caring was not so much because a full transformation didn't matter, but rather was that the transformation went off without a hitch. Because of the amount of different forms Eevee could take, DNA from it and its 'Eeveelutions', as they're called, are fundamentally unstable. Without a slightly altered source, the genetic coding would be far too unstable under usual circumstances, rendering direct-to-Eeveelution changes practically impossible. Naturally, Joachim had found some way he thought to get around the instability, and, eager to try his new mixture out, chose Nathaniel as the perfect subject.

However, a lack of response from Nathaniel did bother him a bit, as he felt a certain twinge of disappointment. Truth be told, he liked seeing his subjects' first response when it's completed, but on the other hand, he'd never had a person be conscious during this process. While unhappy, he did understand it was likely he was in shock right now, as the amount of pain seemed like it was horrendous. Instead of dwelling on this, however, he retrieves his tranquilizer gun, and aims it at the new pokemon, waiting for further instructions.

Meanwhile Giovanni, having watched the entire process, just gives off a grin darker than usual. He laughs quite a bit, as he flips a switch, adjusting the light in such a way that the two of them could see each other. He turns on the intercom system, and laughs again. Truth be told, he rather enjoyed seeing the person who had caused so much trouble for him, writhe in pain. Served him right, for trying to take down his organization, for trying to destroy everything he built up with his bare hands. He was very happy with the results and, despite him wanting to see a Pikachu as the transformation of choice, just for the sake of irony, he had to admit he wasn't disappointed. "Joachim, shoot him, then have a technician leave him in the lobby. I'll make arrangements for his disposal." he says in a dark voice, before his laughter picks up again. Not waiting for a response, he turns off the intercom, and the switch enabling both to be able to see each other, before he heads for his office to make pickup arrangements. As he enters the elevator, the sound of a rifle discharge can be heard, as Joachim fires a tranquilizer into Nathaniel's neck.

Near dawn, inside Viridian Forest

Nighttime in the Viridian Forest. Though deforestation had taken its toll, reducing the trees of the forest by over half, pokemon who had chosen to stay behind still managed to find a peaceful home. In fact, most of those pokemon are currently asleep, the nocturnal ones preparing for a full day of rest, while the others remain fast asleep, not quite ready to awaken yet. Far in the distance, the very distinct light of twilight filters through the trees, starting to rouse the pokemon. A gentle breeze blows through, slightly rustling the leaves. There are no pokemon trainers about, leaving the area in perfect peace

This peace, however, doesn't remain for very long, as it is through this forest, that a motorcycle drives, breaking the beauty of it. This bike is what is referred to as a Rapidasher. It has all the speed and power of a professional racing motorcycle, except it stands out as a Team Rocket vehicle, as can be told by various red Rs covering the black paint. On this motorcycle, a rather tough-looking rocket Grunt speeds through, carrying something in a brown sack. There is a screeching noise, as the grunt slows to a stop, and looks around a bit. "Dispose of this thing somewhere in the wild. Got it." he says, apparently repeating orders to himself, given from Giovanni. He nods once, and twirls the bag around, before throwing it high, and far. Thinking his job done, he turns around, and speeds off towards the Viridian City facility, the nearest facility to his location. It was nearing dawn, and the least the Team Rocket organization needed was an open conflict with the police over a little disposal.

The bag, meanwhile, sails through the air and the trees, apparently being thrown quite hard. The bag flies through the trees for a good few minutes, before a wrinkle in the bag finally catches on a high-up branch. A thing, an Umbreon formerly known as Nathaniel, falls from it, hitting his head and back against branches, the sedative apparently still in effect. There is some noise as he falls into the awaiting bushes below, causing Rattata and Pidgey and Weedle to scurry away as fast as possible. There, on the forest floor, a somewhat battered Umbre/Nathan lies, covered in leaves, twigs, and dust. A small bit of blood begins to drip from his head, as he twitches the slightest bit, before he stops moving.


	3. The Journey Begins

Hello readers, and welcome to Chapter 3 of Journey Through the Darkness, titled The Journey Begins! This chapter is really just to start off the bulk of the story, putting it in a direction, and clearly indicating where the story is heading. I decided this would be best, rather than to have Nathaniel wandering around aimlessly for a while before randomly stumbling on where he needed to end up.

Hope you enjoy!

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

Journey Through the Darkness

Chapter 3: The Journey Begins

* * *

Viridian Forest: early dawn

As the sun finds its ways through the somewhat thinned trees, pokemon of mostly the bug variety begin to awaken. Because of the hour, there are no trainers to disturb this peaceful scene, leaving its inhabitants to do as they please. As a result of the thinning, the once well-beaten paths leading through the forest had come to be somewhat overgrown and slightly hidden. Brand new paths had been crafted from the deforestation, and beginner trainers who had little desire to tangle with a swarm of Beedrill, or advanced trainers who cared not about catching such 'weak' pokemon were more inclined to use these paths. They were longer, sure, but for most, the extra travel distance meant no getting lost or attacked. Little attention had been paid to the old paths, not even receiving the slightest recognition of their history as being one of the many obstacles on the path of the pokemon trainer, a fact that only the most reminiscent of trainers seemed to be bothered by.

However, just because humans thought this historic trail as little more than a nuisance, meant not that they simply became known as the 'road less traveled. Pokemon still found these trails useful, as thanks to the more agricultural trainers, a great variety of berry bushes had been planted, providing food for the number of pokemon. Picking through one of these berry bushes, a yellow-furred pokemon not native to the surrounding area. This small, mousey-looking pokemon, instantly recognized as Pikachu. His cheeks give off a minor electric discharge as its zigzag tail twitches, a sign that this particular Pikachu has found something which has caught its interest. He reaches into the bushes before it, before pulling out the familiar blue-colored, tomato-shaped Oran Berry. As soon as this berry is dislodged however, a faint, yellow glow shines through the darkness that of which is inside the bush. This unexpected occurrence is apparently a cause for alarm, as the Pikachu jumps back. "Eek! Demon!" a somewhat feminine, but at the same time, not too young girlish voice exclaims. The owner of the voice is, of course, the Pikachu. Her panic-stricken state is soon calmed down shortly after, as the 'demon' doesn't move from its resting place. Natural curiosity overriding flight instinct, she makes her way back over to the source of the glow. With a little bit of effort, she reaches inside, pulling something out by the ear.

The source of the glow: an Umbreon, with a patch of red fur on its head. To any person with a keen eye, it would be apparent that this pokemon had been injured recently. Small cuts on it are apparent by slightly dislocated fur, likely from its crash into the bush. However, these injuries pale in comparison to the one lying on the back of its head. In that spot, dried blood is mixed in with fur, matting it quite well. The smell of fresh blood is still there, indicating that either the wound is fresh, or that it is healing but hasn't healed completely. Immediately concerned, Pikachu bends over, and drops the Oren Berry, patting the poor pokemon on the side of its face. "Hey! Hey, you! Are you alright? Wake up!" she exclaims, appearing to lack the realization that it's unconscious.

As Nathaniel begins to regain consciousness, a certain grogginess can be felt. Though he longed to move, all he felt was a certain sort of tingling numbness, an indication that his body was rejecting his orders. That grogginess gives way to a feeling of strong vertigo: though he knew he was clearly stationary, everything around him seemed to be moving and distorted. He could hear the faint sounds of a strongly echoed voice in the distance, possibly asking if he was airtight and to rake mops. His eyes open the slightest, however, they close again, when everything turns into a colossal, moving blur. It is only when the vertigo fades, that a strong sense of pain can be felt from the back of his head. This almost instantly snaps him from his dizziness, as he lets out a rather loud howl of pain. His eyes shoot open and, though the images before him remain blurry and doubled, he can somewhat make out a big poof of yellow fur.

Pikachu, though initially freaked out by his yelling, begins to flail her arms a bit. "Stop yelling. Stop yelling!!" she exclaims, a look of clear panic appearing on her face. "You'll cause trainer attention if you do that!!" she shouts, frantically, thinking logic to be the key to getting him to shut his mouth. Her time in exploring the pokemon world had taught her many things, amongst them being that silence is a virtue, more quiet less riot, and stealth was the key to not being caught. It was for this reason that she traveled alone, and became panicked each time some loudmouth pokemon opened their maw and started to shout out all sorts of things, often leading to her running away from the noisemaker. However, she felt something different from this pokemon: something intriguing. Instead of abandoning him, she does only what she can think of doing: she shoves the Oren Berry into its mouth.

As the berry is forced into Nathaniel's mouth, his fangs pierce the ripe, blue food out of instinct. As the skin tears, the sweet, blue juice runs over his tongue, and down his throat, into his stomach. As soon as it hits his stomach, he closes his eyes, as a sensation only able to be described as 'warm and tingly' overcomes him. With this feeling, all the pain he had felt begin to slowly vanish, as his wounds close. The dried blood that had matted his fur seems to dissipate into thin air, leaving him with just a pleasant feeling. As the pain fades, so too does the noise as a result of this pain, returning the forest to the serenity it had experienced up until then. Despite having no reason to scream, and ergo no reason to keep a hold of the berry, he continues to willingly chew on it, enjoying the feeling it provides. There was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind, something telling him that this wasn't right. He ignores this feeling, however, he drops the berry to the forest floor.

The sudden lack of noise causes Pikachu to let out a sigh of relief, as her own frantic actions halt. She picks up the leftover berry and smiles a little, laughing, before eating the rest. She scoots closer to him, and holds out her hand, an offering of greeting and peace. "I guess you were hungry, huh? Or hurt? Ya' sure did eat a lot!" she says, tilting her head a little. "I'm Pikachu! Who are you? Why were you in that bush? Why are you in Viridian Forest? Aren't you afraid of being caught? Don't you know sleeping like that is dangerous?" she asks. Inquisitive by nature, this particular Pikachu often would fire off questions a mile a minute, seldom waiting for an answer. Understandably, this had lead to great conflicts for her, as it was rare for even the most patient of pokemon to be able to withstand never-ending inquiry. However, because this came natural to her, she would rarely catch herself doing this, often needing someone else to tell her she was going on and on. It appeared that, from any outside observer, this would be one of those times.

Nathaniel keeps his eyes closed, ears pinned, as he somehow manages to block out the sound of the motor mouthed inquisitor. Instead, he tries to focus on more important things, like where he is, or how he got there. Each time he tries to pull a bit of information, however, he's met with nothing. There is no vague memory, no fuzziness, just a sort of.. darkness clouding his mind. This somewhat concerned him, which grew with each memory. The more he tried to recall something, the more darkness he found. He couldn't recall anything: location, time of day, even his own name. Figuring his efforts weren't enough, he concentrates as hard as he possibly can manage, an action which would prove to be to his detriment as a rather dull pain fills his head. Not wanting another berry to be shoved into his mouth, he clenches his teeth a bit, as he raises a paw up to his head, and starts to rub. "Nnnnhh.." he mutters. "Darn it.. this.. this isn't good.."

Pikachu tilts her head to the side a little more, as she finally stops asking questions. "Was I walking too much again? I'm sorry.." she says, her ears drooping a little to express this. "I hope you're not mad at me. You're not going to attack me, are you? I don't handle pain well. What isn't good? Are you hurt still? Didn't the berry heal you? Do you need another one?" she asks, but shakes her head quickly, and lightly hits herself upon the head, flinching a little. "No! Stop asking questions! You'll only make him mad!" she says, hitting herself again. Her look of concern returns, however, as she turns her attention back to him, and taps his nose gently. "What's wrong? Are you alright?" she asks, clearly sounding concerned.

He opens his eyes again, as he mutters a sentence, but it comes out as being rather incoherent. Sensing this himself, he slowly rolls onto his stomach, before clearing his throat. "I… I don't know if I'm alright.. My head, it's.. .." He slowly moves to a seated position on his haunches, and rubs his eyes a little, before shaking his head quickly in a vain attempt to clear his mind. He rubs his head a little, before glancing over at the Pikachu. "..where am I?"

She tilts her head a little more, enough that if she did so again, her head would practically be vertical, ears pointing towards the sky and ground. "You don't know where you are?!" she asks, a clear look of confusion on her face. "How can you not know where you are?! You got here, didn't you? Are you brain damaged? Do you have anterograde amnesia? Do you have retrograde amtesia? Global amnesia?" she asks, as she goes off an a questioning spree again, listing all forms of amnesia she can think of.

He starts to rub his head a bit. "Amnesia..? Amnesia.. .. That thing where you forget things..? Sounds about right .. … Amnesia.." he mutters, his features displaying an obvious concern. But how did I get it..? Why am I in this place? What happened? Stupid head, remember something! he thinks, trying to command his brain to remember even the slightest detail. Finding this to be getting him nowhere, he lets out a deep sigh, and glances over at Pikachu, who's still going on about how she knew a pokemon with amnesia once, a story he really couldn't find himself able to focus on. After a bit of watching her, some small thing clicks in his mind, as a very minor part of the darkness is illuminated. "..Nathaniel." he says aloud, unintentionally.

Pikachu finally stops with her incessant inquiry, suddenly giving the Umbreon her undivided attention. "What? Nathaniel? Who's Nathaniel? Your trainer?" she asks, as she pulls a branch from the bush, that of which contains a few more fresh Oren berries. She begins to chew on one herself, given the one she'd originally planned on eating had been half-eaten by her 'friend' here. She actually waits for an answer this time, instead of going on another question spree or a tangent.

He shakes his head, as he glances over at her again. 'No.. Nathaniel. It's my name. Something's telling me.. .. That's all I can get.." he mutters. Despite his predicament, he manages to smile, and actually let out a bit of a laugh. "I guess it's better than nothing, right?" he asks, tilting his head a bit. For some reason, the lack of his memory seemed to not be as much of a concern as it would any usual person, for reasons unknown even to him.

This change from the serious dark to the more lightheaded mood seems to spark a change in the Pikachu. She returns his smile, with a cute one of her own. She nods a little bit, and offers another berry. "Nathaniel, huh? That's a great name! I bet your trainer is a really cool guy, giving you such a cool nickname like that." she says with a quick nod, and takes a huge bite out of the berry she'd just been offering him, her own hunger overcoming her sensibilities. Without even offering him a second berry, she throws the branch back in the bush, and stretches. "So, where are you headin', Nathaniel? Or did you forget that, too?"

"Well, I don't.." he begins, but quiets down as a light wind begins to kick up, blowing in a westerly direction. As it does this, the leaves of the trees and bushes ruffle a bit, a few leaves blowing off. Small bits of trash are included in the debris, amongst them, a map, likely lost by a trainer en rout to destination unknown. This map floats around on the wind for a good few seconds, before smacking Nathaniel square in the face, inciting an 'ouch' from him. Coincidentally, as soon as occurs, the wind dies down, causing the map to gently flutter to the forest floor, landing face-up, at his forepaws. Overcome by curiosity, he looks over the map a bit. It appears to be a highly detailed map of both Johto, and Western Kanto, all locations west of Mt. Moon. There is a red marker on Viridian Forest, and a red, dotted line leading from that, through the Silver Mountain Range, and through various areas of Johto all the way to the Ilex Forest, containing a green marker. He studies the map for a few minutes and, figuring he had really no idea now of what to do or where to go, he decides to follow this map, He nods once, and looks up at Pikachu. "Ilex Forest."

Pikachu, who had been busy removing small twigs and bits of dirt from her fur because of that freak windstorm, looks over at him, clearly surprised. "Ilex Forest?? Why there?" she asks, very curious. Truth be told she, like most pokemon, tended to avoid that place. It was a universally-known rumor amongst pokemon that often times, those entering that forest would never be heard from again. Larger rumors go to state that there was some form of giant, evil pokemon sealed away inside, that fed on any creature who dare to enter uninvited. Of course, these were just rumors, and the amount of pokemon that had actually disappeared was rather low, but it still served as a deterrent. It was said that even powerful pokemon kept clear of the area by land or sky, it was such a deterrent.

Nathaniel nods a bit, as he stands, stretching out a bit. Though it would be unexpected for him to adapt to his new form and the way it works so quickly, his condition was a special one. What would usually feel illogical and downright strange to his regular, human side, a good portion of that had been sealed away with his memory. With nothing to compare to the past with, what would be the usual was taken over by a sort of instinct of how his form operates, thus enabling him to act without trying to adapt the restrictions of the new form to what he was used to doing in his old. "That's right. Ilex Forest .. .. I don't know exactly why, but let's just say.. I saw a sign?" he says, tilting his head slightly

Pikachu lets out a small sigh, before giving a small smile. "..c'mon then. Let's go." she says, extending a paw towards him. She knew he couldn't easily shake it unless he was sitting, but she felt the need to show the kind gesture nonetheless. "Ilex Forest is super far from here, and you having your brain thingy, you could use all the help you could get." Though she didn't know why, she felt a sort odd feeling, that in a way compelled her to join him in his quest, however blind it may seem.

Nathaniel gives a small nod, unable to help but return the smile himself. He looks around a little, before nodding again, and heading South towards Viridian city, towards Route 2. According to the map, they would have to head towards Viridian City, before heading West towards the Silver Mountain Range. Pikachu quickly gathers a few branches worth of small berries, before walking next to him. Together, they walk off down a path seemingly illuminated by the morning glow of the sun itself, towards adventure unknown.

Location Unknown..

In this particular area, there is a dim light, illuminating a space made up of a sort of odd, purple, almost tie-dye-looking light or material. The ground, ceiling, and walls are indiscernible, to a point that it is unknown if any exist, or it's simply a world of odd purple. However, four figures, made up completely of a sort of aura or energy projection, stand out. Because the figures are just light, they have no real shape to them, and such the only way of telling them apart are by their colors: pink, green, gold, and silver. The incorporeal forms are gathered in a sort of circle, but nothing much else can be told from them.

The green one glows a little brighter than the others, as a small voice, one that sounds slightly strained when it's speaking, can be heard. "How long can we stand by and let those Team Rocket people get away with this!? Their atrocities are reaching an all-time high! If we all just.."

The silver one glows brighter, as a rather smooth, yet strong, male voice interjects. "If we all just gather together and take them on at once, it would be foolish. They have the advantage in numbers, pokemon, and technology. As powerful as we are, we wouldn't stand a chance. Have you not forgotten how one single human from their organization captured you, forty years ago? They as a species have evolved at a rate far quicker than any of us could have imagined, and the presence of this organization has made it extremely difficult to coexist, let alone move in the open. I think we should wait until.." he begins, but that last sentence causes an argument to begin between three of the four presences.

The fourth one, the one of pink light, glows quite bright, silencing the others. A soft voice comes from it, as the creature behind it begins to speak. "Please, now is not the time to be arguing amongst ourselves.. We cant fight against them like this, yet we must do something.. Fortunately for us, Team Rocket has dropped what we needed right into our hands.. I cannot act directly because of the danger, but I will do my best to guide him on the right path. Things will turn out for the best, just have a little faith.. Everyone, please gather here again in one week's time. Hopefully by then.."

As the pink form's sentence drops off, the four incorporeal forms begin to fade. As soon as they all leave, the light fades to black, as the odd location disappears into an inky darkness, having faded out of existence


	4. Road Through the Silver Mountains Part 1

Hey readers. I must apologize ahead of time for the long wait. I really hope you haven't forgotten about me and my story '' To be honest, a lot has been going on in this past month or so, and I just couldn't really get around to feeling like writing. But the wait is over! I present to you Chapter 4 of Journey Through the Darkness, entitled Road Through the Silver Mountains (Part 1)

This chapter marks the true start of Nathaniel and Pikachu's quest, and reveals a little bit of history about the world of Pokemon (according to me, anyway). With a clear destination in mind, and the help of an unknown benefactor, the pair are off on their quest to the Ilex Forest. What will they encounter as they adventure out into the world?

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

**Journey Through the Darkness**

Chapter 4: Road Through the Silver Mountains (Part 1)

As the sun rises higher in the sky, the duo exit from the 'enclosed' region of the Viridian Forest, to a finely-crafted dirt path. The Route 2 extension had been approved by Pokemon League officials, who had received constant complaints from trainers about being attacked by Beedrill and other dangerous pokemon on their trek to Pewter City. Though more experienced trainers had little problem, it was not uncommon for a novice trainer to find himself being chased around by swarms of the pokemon. To solve this threat to public health and safety, a team of Machamp had been sent out to pull out trees and stomp a clean dirt path, which branched off in two directions, thus making an exact square shape around the forest. In order to avoid having a problem with the wild pokemon there, particularly with relocation, they had left a section of the forest still standing, and capable of entry to any trainer who in fact wanted to catch a pokemon native to that area. During the opening ceremonies held at the end of the 'construction', the Elite Four themselves had made a personal appearance to cut the ribbon, while Champion Lance used a ceremonial golden hammer to pound the indication signpost into the exact area where the paths split. Though there was some controversy about the partial deforestation, mostly Professor Oak's and a few gem leaders' clear opposition to the idea of destroying a habitat that had been mostly untouched, a majority of the populace of Kanto welcomed the new change.

Despite it being an extension, the branching paths were not named or mapped out as Route 2 Ext., though anyone who lived in the region named it as such. Instead, they shared the same name as the old route: Route 2. The reason for this and all routes being named by number and mapped in their order? Ages ago, before the Pokemon League, the regions were separated, each having their own form of currency and way of doing things. In an attempt to bring the world together as one, the five most powerful trainers of Kanto and the Sevii Islands, Johto, Hoenn and the Battle Frontier, Sinnoh and their islands, and the Orange Islands pulled together. They worked with the smartest and most renown Pokemon Professors from their respective regions to gain support in order to unify and form the Pokemon League. Within ten years, near the entire world had gathered together under one supreme order, whose base of operations was built directly on the Kanto/Johto border, due to the fact that those to regions have the largest landmass when combined. In order to keep a grip on things, Hoenn and Sinnoh each had their own branch of the Pokemon League constructed, while the Orange Islands had a smaller tournament-styled setup due to them being an archipelago. To make it easier for inter-region travelers, non-specialized routes connecting cities had been numbered, starting with the Pokemon Professor of that region's town of residence, and sequenced according to the route a trainer starting in that town would be most likely to take to get from gym to gym. Because of a dispute about which region should have which route numbers, a huge pokemon battle took place at the recently-finished Indigo Plateau, between the five trainers. After a spectacular match, Kanto finished first, followed by Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and the Orange Islands in dead last, which lead to the Route system seen today.

It is on this route, that Pikachu and Nathaniel walk, past the wooden signpost, down the beaten path towards Viridian City. Because of the early hour, the road is not yet filled with the various trainers and other people trying to get from point A to point B, making it the perfect time for two pokemon such as themselves to travel. The path from the forest to the outskirts of the town is rather short, given of course, the city's close proximity to the forest. The city itself is rather small, more of a sort of town than a city, with most buildings not standing over three stories tall. Its population matched its size: the entire city had a population of well under a thousand people. In addition, another oddity about this city, was that it contained the gym carrying the Earth Badge, number eight on the list of badges. Though it could be, and often is thought that this is only according to the 'Logical Route' of badge gathering, the city with the connection to the Indigo Plateau route being the last choice on a trainer's journey, it still served as a geographical mystery.

The gym system had been developed after the route system was finalized. For each major city in a region, there would more often than not be a gym, for a total of eight gyms. The exception to this rule was, of course, the Orange Island region, which contained only four badges. These gyms served as both a way to challenge trainers, give pokemon trainers a form of goal, and to test them for suitability to take on the true title of Champion. Though a trainer may enter the Pokemon League without first collecting eight badges, they would have to win qualifying rounds to enter the finals. Not only was this a harder road to travel, it was far less rewarding. If a person managed to beat the Elite Four after the finals, they would still be given the title of Champion, but they would be disqualified from replacing the current Champion. The Champion was more than just a simple title: the true Champion would take on the full role, including all responsibilities that come with it. However, being the Champion wasn't easy; It required a unanimous decision of the Elite Four, as well as at least half of the Gym Leaders approval. In doing this, there could be no way an incompetent yet powerful trainer could ascend to such a position of power and prestige. The same remains true for all other regions. Gym leader appointment, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as hard. Applicants for gym leader position had to be made to the Pokemon League, followed by a test of suitability, a comparison of the existing gym leader to the applying one, and finally, a series of battles under different conditions to assess skill in matches. Because of this rigor involved in the qualification process, it was very, very rare for a gym leader to be replaced.

Despite the mystery of it, the location of the Earth Badge sits in this city, likely being the largest building with the highest amount of beauty. Like the other gyms, this one carries a certain grandeur about it, yet at the same time, carries an eerie, dark quality not present with any other gyms. This could be attributed entirely to the fact that the leader of this gym is none other than Giovanni Boss. However, his true identity to this day remains a secret, even to the persons at the Pokemon League. He had taken up the position years ago, which rose from the need to act in the public eye while simultaneously guaranteeing he had the ability to know what the Pokemon League was up to at all times. Due to his strength and personality, he was appointed leader of the Viridian City Gym, an area he particularly liked, due to its close proximity to the Elite Four. His strength had guaranteed he would never be removed from his position, something he felt very glad about. Because of his confidence in this, he had set up a miniature base there, mostly consisting of computers and technology capable of monitoring all actions of the Indigo Plateau and Elite Four. When not performing his duties as leader of Team Rocket, he would be found facing opponents in the gym; his way of testing recently-received pokemon to gauge their power. Because of this, he refused to battle against trainers he deemed inexperienced or unworthy, or unless they had seven badges. By doing this, he had been able to strength test, as well as designate certain trainers as marks for Team Rocket operations, all while never arousing suspicion.

The gym, unfortunately, is closed at this hour of the morning, causing Pikachu and Nathaniel to walk by it without even a second thought. Should it have been opened, there was a certain possibility that Nathaniel would be able to recover a good chunk of his memory just by the sound of Giovanni's voice, however because it was still closed, sadly, this would not be the case. And so, the two continue through the small city, uninterrupted, out the Westerly exit. They enter an area known and marked as Route 22, one of the last routes on the road of the Pokemon Trainer to the Indigo Plateau. Ahead of them, lies a beautiful, slightly worn pathway. Grass and a tree or so extend for quite a distance, eventually thinning out around the base of the Silver Mountain range, and the area where Kanto and Johto connect. Pokemon were a rare find here, due to the amount of trainers heading through that would make it a habit of catching them, thinning out their numbers to an unbelievable low. After quite a bit of walking, they near the large wall signaling the Kanto/Johto linking building. They almost begin to approach the doors, when the logic about this potentially dangerous situation strikes Nathaniel

"Wait!" he exclaims, as he runs in front of, and blocks Pikachu from proceeding further. He glances at her, a look of concern clear on his face. "Wait.. We cant waltz through a place like that! There would be trainers everywhere!" he says, feeling a little tingly from the thought. "We have to.. Another way around! How can we get around?"

Pikachu, not having seen the danger in traveling such a direct and well-known path, gives a rather relieved sigh as she stops. She laughs a bit, something she often does when nervous, and scratches behind her head a little. "Oh right. I forgot about that.. .." she says, trying to play it off like it were no big deal. She tilts her head to the side, trying to think of an alternative route. "Oh! I heard a rumor a long long time ago from another Pikachu that used to travel around this area that a long time before they made this tunnel connector thingy between Kanto and Johto they used to have to walk down this icky path, and it had a whole bunch of.." she begins but, seeing Nathaniel's interest quickly beginning to fade, she manages to bring herself to get to the point of the story. "They say there's a really old path around here that goes straight from Kanto to Johto, but it's been soooo long since anybody's used it, nobody's sure where it is anymore! The pokemon here have been super thinned out, so I don't know how we can find out where it is.."

Just around the time she finishes her sentence, the ground starts to shake, but very lightly, enough so that if one had not been paying close attention to their surroundings, they wouldn't even notice it. However, despite the lack of force which the quake carried, the after-effects are very prominent. On the nearby mountain base, bits of rock give way in a sort of miniature avalanche. Instantly catching the eye of Nathaniel alone, he rushes over, and sits, gazing slightly upwards at the change in the rock formation. Pikachu, curious as to the action of her traveling companion, sits next to him, and looks at the exact same thing.

A portion of the wall had fallen to the ground, leaving behind somewhat misshapen circles or ovals. As with the map viewed in the Viridian Forest, there was a deep marker indicating their location, as well as a deep line going through an area on the map, to a different part marked as 'Johto'. Different shades of brown matched up with a sort of chart printed to the lower right, with numbers next to the different colors. It can be gathered by these details that it was both a highly detailed map designed to point them in the correct direction, and also, that it was not some sort of freak coincidence. The chances of this happening had to be over one in a billion, and as such, Nathaniel could safely conclude that there is probably someone guiding them. Who or why he did not know, but he was determined to find out, as he really had nothing else to go on.

Pikachu, however, thinks this as little more than a strange happening. In fact, the longer she stared at this formation in the rocks, the more she found herself confused as to what it was. Tilting her head slightly, she glances over at Nathaniel, looking to see if he had any more idea as to what this meant.

Nathaniel slowly moves closer to the formation and sits, staring at it, looking quite determined to discover its meaning. A good five or ten minutes pass, and with nothing coming to mind, he seems prepared to quit and say 'let's find the place on our own'. However, the second before he does that, something snaps together in his mind, as two words escape his muzzle. "Topographic map." Quickly noticing the confused look on Pikachu's face, he gives himself no time to figure out why he'd know that, and goes into an explanation. "It's a topographic map. The different colors show different elevations.." he says, pointing with his tail to the chart, then to the map itself. "We're here.." he says, pointing to the marker. "And according to the map, the path is.. here." he says, standing on his hind legs, and pointing to an area just south of Victory Road, where there were similar height mappings. Not waiting for questions or protests from his traveling companion, he bolts off in the direction that the map indicates, willing to put blind faith in what or whomever is guiding him. As Pikachu chases after him, there is another minor quake, as some more of the rock falls away, destroying any evidence that the map had existed.

He couldn't quite remember why he knew a lot about topography, as that part of his mind was still shrouded in darkness. However, the role it had played in his past had been vital to his ability to operate in secrecy. His cause of the downfall of Team Rocket Hoenn had put him on top of the Team Rockets most wanted list, while the chaos he caused on the stock market put him up on the list of criminals. With virtually no options of a place to stay, and really no money to be able to buy or build his own hiding place, he had to think fast. He needed a natural location, in an area that would be virtually impossible to find, yet would provide him with the conditions he needed to carry out his work. Not able to travel far and wide to find such a location, he had to resort to something that would require him to learn something other than computers: topography. Surprisingly enough, it was fairly easy for him to learn. He used various websites to research all about topography, what various maps, contours, and markers meant, and eventually hacked into the database of the Kanto Region Geological Survey or KRGS, to find a location suitable for hiding. Most of the areas had already been mapped out, however, there was a very minor, unmarked inconsistency on the first floor of Mt. Moon. Personal investigation lead him to find his former hiding place, but it was apparent how well that worked out in the end.

* * *

Silver Mountain Range: Forgotten Path: Entrance

It had been quite a walk to the entrance near Victory Road, and the hour of day was drawing dangerously close to that of when trainers would be flooding the area. Despite the strangeness of their situation, however, the pair pressed on. Thus far, from what Nathaniel can tell, the map had been accurate down to the very last detail, and the elevation appeared to be making a bit of a sharp decline. The view of rocky mountainside fades to rather thick trees and shrubbery, as the Forgotten Path moves into view. To their surprise, there is a rather large, barbed wire, electrically charged fence set up, with various warning signs, preventing entrance. Obviously, this area hadn't been so much 'forgotten' as it had been designated historically significant, and atop of that a Pokemon Preserve. Because of this, outsiders had been prevented entry. This came as a bit of a relief, at least to Nathaniel, because that meant the chance of danger to them was fairly slim. There was only one problem though: how to get past the fence. He knew Pikachu could probably just dig a hole and squeeze under, but if he attempted that stunt himself, he could be severely injured.

A short time of sitting, staring at the fence brought little ideas to his mind. It appeared perfectly constructed: two large, steel towers of sorts, grounded firmly in the surrounding mountainside, connected horizontally by somewhat thick, electrified cables separated possibly every foot or so. To prevent people from somehow squeezing between the wires, much smaller wires had been added in a sort of diagonal crosshatching pattern. The fence had no apparent power source, indicating its likely connection to the Pokemon League building or the regional connection building via underground cables. This sort of security fence was reminiscent of one present in a movie about ancient pokemon in some sort of park then things went awry one faithful night, but often people failed to make any sort of connection between the two, despite the glaring similarities. There appeared to be no flaws, no outstanding features. However, careful inspection did reveal something: a small hatch on the bottom, just within reach.

This seemed to be of great importance to Nathaniel, as he walks over to this hatch. A few seconds of inspection revealed the hatch to be openable by a key or similar object, via keyhole at the top of the door. It didn't appear to be an electronically-secured lock, so using Pikachu's electricity to bypass it wouldn't really do any good. In addition, it wasn't some form of tumble lock, so possibly generating a magnet to bypass it didn't appear possible. However, he knew he was over thinking this, he could feel it. Letting his mind give way to more primitive tactics, he moves a step or so back, before charging at the hatch. A rather audible 'clang' is heard, as his head makes contact with the direct center of the hatch, an indication he'd used his Headbutt move, leaving Nathaniel surprisingly no worse for wear. Though usually learned with the assistance of a Technical Machine, most pokemon were able to use this move by default, as it didn't quite take a genius to learn how to do a headbutt. The results of the 'attack' are immediately present, as a rather large dent appears in the door, to such an extent that the edges of the hatch had actually peeled away from the rest. The metal pieces used to actually keep the hatch closed had torn clean from the rest. In such a state, it was only a matter of time, before a loud groan came from the slightly-warped hinges, and the latch swung open.

Inside of the compartment, various fuses, switches, and meters can be seen, monitoring everything from input and output, to the electrical flow in every wire. For kicks, a 'Shock-o-Meter' had been installed. The Shock-o-Meter measured when a circuit was completed by human or pokemon that resulted in an electric shock, thus bumping up the meter by one. Currently, the meter appeared to be at about ten or fifteen. However, most of the things here were irrelevant. Though Nathaniel could recognize the different components, something that came from his learning of physical security systems, he didn't particularly need to be stealthy about rewiring this or removing that. Instead, he moves away, motioning for Pikachu to attack the components.

Seeing no reason to question him, given he's been able to figure things out before that were beyond her understanding, she just gives a small nod, and takes in a deep breath. The patches on her cheeks begin to spark, as an electrical charge builds up. Not five seconds later, her body is surrounded in arcing electricity, as she releases all of her build-up energy at a fairly large bolt, aimed directly at the contents of the panel. There is quite a visible reaction as her attack ceases, as the innards of the panel spark a bit. The fuses blow out at once, the sensitive connectors char, as a small bit of smoke rises from the destruction. With the immense amount of damage to the panel, however, the amount of electricity flowing to the fence is reduced to absolute nothing. Though Nathaniel saw no immediate evidence of this, in truth not sure that that would actually do anything, he relies more on his instinct than his mind. He backs up, and takes a running leap, latching on to the fence, much to the surprise of Pikachu. No shock, that was certainly good, he figured, as he scrambles the best he can over the fence, and onto a patch of dirt not touched by 'outsiders' in an unknown expanse of time. Pikachu quickly follows and, upon landing, begins to firmly reprimand Nathanial for scaring her half to death with that stunt. However, as the sun rises into the sky, they walk down the long-ignored path into the thick overgrowth, that of which signals the start of the Forgotten Path.


	5. Road Through the Silver Mountains Part 2

I'm really sorry about the long wait between chapters. I really hadn't felt like writing until recently ^^; so really, I am sorry. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

This chapter minimally explores into Giovanni's relationship with his mother, Madame Boss. It also details my version about how Team Rocket became, quite literally, space age. Most of it though, has to do with an unexpected bump on the road to Johto

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

**Journey Through the Darkness**

Chapter 5: Journey Through the Silver Mountains (Part 2)

Though rather overgrown in the absence of human intervention, the path through the Silver Mountains had proven to be far less dangerous or wild as they had anticipated. Truth be told, there really were few pokemon in the surrounding area, leaving most of the danger of traveling the ancient path to something like tripping over a root, or possibly poison ivy, something Nathaniel didn't mind, but Pikachu felt to be anticlimactic. Of course, the occasional cry of a pokemon could be heard; it was only to be expected, but they sounded somewhat far off from their current location.

Noon comes quickly as the altitude rises a little where they currently are. Things had continued to be fairly uneventful which was a rather good thing or boring thing, depending on who you asked. The thick overgrowth of the forest had given way to a beautiful, grass-filled clearing, from which the surrounding mountainside could be seen. The clearing was truly a lovely sight to behold; lush, green grass covering the area, the surrounding Silver Mountains which stood shimmering under the light of the afternoon sun, air clear of pollution. Despite this, however, not a single pokemon was to be found, an observation that somewhat concerned Nathaniel. Though almost entranced by the scenery, Nathaniel increases his speed to that of a running one, his suspicion rather high. Pikachu quickly matches his pace, not wanting to be left behind. They reach the center of the clearing, as the sun reaches the exact point that it is highest in the sky. It is then, that something unusual happens.

The sun glows brightly, reflecting off of Mt. Silver, filling the clearing Nathaniel and Pikachu are in with a brilliant, golden light, an event which stops the two in their tracks. The grass shimmers, as small, golden orbs rise from the ground, collecting at a central point in the sky, forming a giant, glowing orb of gold. The orb turns to a black color, before exploding outwards in shards similar to floating embers fresh from a fire. Left behind in the sky, is a magnificent sight, as the multicolored wings of Ho-oh shimmer in the brilliant light. The legendary pokemon flaps its wings, as it circles above the pair, leaving behind a rainbow. The bird pokemon lands in front of the duo, enticing looks of amazement.

Nathaniel just stares up at the pokemon. Even Pikachu is left speechless at its presence, which would be to the surprise of anyone knowing her, who would hear this. The ancient pokemon rests on the ground, as the glow fades. It lowers its head, managing to gaze at the two of them simultaneously with its piercing, ruby red eyes. Not opening its mouth to make a sound, it instead speaks directly into their minds in a manner similar to its Guardian of the Seas counterpart. "I have been awaiting your arrival at this location." it says, in a naturally stern, commanding voice. "Speak not, only listen, as the time in which I may speak with you is limited." It turns its head to Nathaniel, gazing into his eyes. "You, boy. You must make no mistake. An unseen presence was, in fact, guiding you throughout the Kanto region. However, she is unable to assist you further, in preparation for the meeting. I have been tasked with guiding you to the Ilex Forest by whatever means I may incorporate." it says, trying to convey a sense of urgency in its words.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Team Rocket Headquarters

Behind the oak desk, Giovanni sits, elbows on his desk. His fingers are interlocked, his chin resting upon them, as he gazes over at a wall. On his features, a look of clear disdain is present, directed at not the wall itself, but something on the wall: a portrait of Giovanni's mother, Madame Boss. Despite the fact that she was his biological mother, he felt nothing short of distain for the woman. She had always been neglectful of him, and the organization she had formed appeared to amount to little more than a desire for capitalistic gain. When she grew ill, and he inherited the organization from her, he did so with a smile on his face. On his first day, he vowed that he would make the Team Rocket organization everything it could be, and more, and with that, he had full support of the organization backing him.

Again, his thoughts of the past are interrupted, as the sound of conflict brewing outside his door presents itself. Though the noise was fairly muffled, he could clearly make out the voice of his secretary arguing with the voice of his chief information gatherer, a man by the name of David Ookaida.

The very embodiment of a stereotypical technical science type, David sports a white lab coat with a red R over the pocket of it. His skin is rather pale, given he spent little time in the sunlight, a feature which greatly brought out the deep emerald in his eyes. A mop of light, brown hair rests upon his head, which slightly obscures his already failing vision, indicated by the rather thick, rounded glasses upon his head. As with most other highly technical personnel in the organization, David had been recruited from an upstanding organization; specifically, the Mossdeep Space Center.

A few years ago, before the fall of Team Rocket's Hoenn branch, information gathered by their informants turned up data about the Mossdeep Space Center, the only known space center to exist in the entire Pokemon world. Recon about their successful missions and space flight capabilities had brought a high amount of interest to them. However manned space flights, he discovered after pondering the potential future of acquiring such technology, would likely be fruitless. This lead him to David Ookaida, a man considered one of the top experts at the facility, who had just been getting over his recent failure in the field of satellite imagery. Though he had a prototype model and blueprints of various imaging satellites, his bid for the center's new project had lost out to the ESP, or Evolutionary Stone Probe, something that would test the effects of zero-gravity on evolution-inducing items. Not really one to sulk over the loss of his proposal, David worked effortlessly on the center's new project, while his own went on forgotten. It was soon after, that Giovanni had met him personally to discuss funding his project. The idea of money weighed little on his decision to send in his resignation: he felt he should leave out of a desire to finish what he'd started, and also carried the slightest bit of spite for the leader of the ESP project. Upon his resignation, he had been moved to the main branch headquarters where, due to Giovanni's funding and staffing, was able to send up rockets from an undisclosed location. As soon as the satellites were in operating order, a good portion of a sublevel were designed to take full advantage of their capabilities. Computers integrated with the TRAINSS system had been installed, ant it kept staffed twenty-four seven people who could look almost all over the world, and report back on primarily strange or unusual sightings, mostly of rare pokemon. There was a bit of a cost involved with the upkeep of the division, thus limiting their range of vision to minimal. Rarely did it pay off as expected. However, when it did pay off, it paid off rather big.

Currently, one of those 'big payoffs' is in the midst of occurring.

Not wanting to hear the scuffle anymore, Giovanni presses a button on his desk, causing the hydraulic doors to let out a loud hiss, and Melissa and David to fall into the room. Paying little attention to Melissa, David jumps up, and runs over to Giovanni. "Sir, you wont believe this!" he states, as he slams a manila folder on the desk. A a few satellite image printed on some sort of translucent, possibly celluloid sheets. The images depict slightly grainy, but mostly clear, overhead shots of Ho-oh.

* * *

Silver Mountain Range

"I can tell you no more at this time, as you will find out everything when the time is right." Ho-oh says, spreading its wings a little. Noting the clear confusion on Nathaniel's face, it lowers its head to his level, so he can speak as direct to him as it can. "You are no ordinary pokemon, boy. There is much more to you than you realize. Though it is not our place to interfere with free will, we can guarantee you that, should you choose to continue on the path we've put in front of you, the darkness that clouds your mind will be lifted." he says. Though it prepares to give information as to where they should head, a rather audible crashing noise can be heard from the western entrance of the old path. The deep crunches of trees being broken or crushed can be heard, as in the distance, trees fall as though a person with a giant saw is going through, cutting them down. Seeing no time to waste, Ho-oh turns towards the source, and points a wing in the direction of the Ilex Forest. A rainbow shoots out, spreading in a glittery arc across the sky. "Go, now! I will protect this location. No one who dares desecrate this sacred land will leave alive."

Nathaniel, finally broken out of the sort of trance, steps forward. "But wait! Ho-oh! I have a lot of questions for you! Who am I? What do you mean, I'm no ordinary pokemon? Why Ilex Forest?" he asks, seeming incessant upon getting an answer right now, since he appeared to be so close. However, he is somewhat cut off, as Ho-oh juts out its wing, trying its best to display a high sense of urgency "Go, now, while there's still time! Your questions will be answered soon, I assure you!"

Seeing he wouldn't get very far with the pokemon, but still desiring an answer, he finally backs down, and runs off. After a minute or so, he returns, and drags away Pikachu, who had still been staring dumbstruck at Ho-oh. Truth be told, she'd never really seen a pokemon so legendary or powerful as Ho-oh, and was so entrances, she could find herself hardly able to move. In fact, she was still staring back at it, even though she was being dragged away.

Soon after their exit from the clearing, the trees from the western exit burst apart, as two heavily-armored vehicles drive onto the scene. These vehicles, built to protect from all but the strongest pokemon attacks, reflect a good amount of light off of their shiny, black surfaces. The double doors in the back, which show the Team Rocket logo, burst open as a team of at least twenty members, armed with various pokemon-catching weaponry, emerge. Each is dressed the same: all black clothing, with the white outline of an R on the back of their shirts. This is to indicate that they are members of Team Rocket's SRS, or Special Retrieval Squad. This group, another subdivision of the Team Rocket corporation, are highly trained personnel, usually sent out for infiltration and retrieval missions, not sent out except for high-profile pokemon retrievals. Ho-oh certainly qualified.

The group get into a skirmish formation, with heavily-armed personnel at the back, lightly-armed personnel in the middle, and pokemon battlers in the front. As the front line releases their pokemon, they move to the back to give commands, while the front two lines focus on attacking the Ho-oh using various capturing devices, both proven and prototype alike. Ho-oh, not taking the attack lightly, lifts itself into the air, before releasing an enormous, purple flame known as Sacred Fire.

As the pair run down the path to Johto, there is a rather loud explosion, followed by a loud, pained-sounding squawk of some kind. Though Nathaniel first considers heading back to assist Ho-oh, he decides against it, not wanting the pokemon offering help to possibly change its mind. Instead, he and Pikachu continue running, following the glow of the rainbow, not heading back.

Through the overgrowth, they go again, soon arriving at an electrified gate similar to what they'd found on the other side. Naturally, the state of this gate is currently electrified, as can be obviously told by the low electric hum emanating from the wires. Not wanting to waste any time, he moves over to the gate, and studies it for a bit. Of course, there was no form of maintenance panel on the side they were on, nor were they lucky enough to find where the electric cable was coming from. Perplexed, Nathaniel thinks, before nodding, and starting to rapidly tunnel under the gate. Only minutes after his forepaws had begun to claw away at the dirt, a hole had begun to develop. Knowing exactly where to go, he tunnels forward, under the electrified wire, soon popping out on the other side. Pikachu follows suit, brushing the dirt off of her fur as she stands next to him.

Ahead of them, lies an old dirt path, surrounded on all sides by forest. Though neither of them were native to the area, and thus neither knew where they are, the image of the map remained clear in Nathaniel's mind. Trying to place themselves in a location relative to where the map had them at this point, he figures they have to be somewhere northeast of the forest, a few miles north of a small location referred to as New Bark town. He glances at Pikachu, and gives a small nod, before bolting forward, kicking up a bit of dirt in his wake. Not wanting to be left behind at this point, Pikachu drops to all fours, and scampers off after him. The two continue on, following the rapidly-fading rainbow path of guidance. A twang of concern struck Nathaniel's heart as he falters for a second, sensing something to be wrong, but he pushes forward anyway.

* * *

Location Uknown..

Back in this particular area, there a dim light appears again, illuminating a space made up of a sort of odd, purple, almost tie-dye-looking light or material. As before, the ground, ceiling, and walls are indiscernible, to a point that it is unknown if any exist, or it's simply a world of odd purple. Unlike last time, however, three figures, made up completely of a sort of aura or energy projection, stand out, with a notable lack of the golden aura. The incorporeal forms are gathered in a sort of circle, again.

The green aura glows slightly, as the small voice speaks out in the void. "We lost contact with Ho-oh shortly after its run-in with the boy. Are you sure he isn't working for them? Can we really trust him?"

The pink aura glows, as the soft voice speaks. "I am sure we can. He has no reason to aid the Rockets, I can sense it. What happened to Ho-oh was an unfortunate result of wrong time, wrong place. It was not the fault of the boy. Unfortunately, without him, we have no contact with Entei, Suicune, or Raikou, however this is another hurdle we must overcome. Unfortunately, this display of Team Rocket's power proves they are more of a threat than we originally thought.. As much as I would desire not to do this, I must enlist the aid of one of the legendary birds to recruit a human to the cause against their will.."

The silver aura glows fiercely, and the smooth voice speaks out, rather angered. "Madness!!" he snaps. "Are you actually suggesting we reduce ourselves to their level?!"

The pink one glows even brighter. "What choice have we?! With the way things are, we wont be able to defeat them without extra help! I wish we had an alternative, but we don't!" she snaps, her aura fading slightly. "We have no choice. For now, we must be like those we aim to destroy, in order to destroy them." she says, her aura fading to blackness.

With her disappearance, the other two incorporeal forms fade away, as does the world, returning it to the inky blackness from whence it came.


	6. Supporting the Cause

Sorry for the long wait, but i now present to you Journey Through the Darkness Ch. 6: Supporting the Cause

This chapter adds a brand new character to the mix, while also going into the history behind the eruption of the Cinnabar Island Volcano, and showing one of Team Rocket's recruitment methods.

I hope you enjoy it! ^-^

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

* * *

**Journey Through the Darkness**

Chapter 6: Supporting the Cause

It is midday in the small town of Pallet. A gentle breeze blows, causing a small rustling of leaves, and the windmill on Professor Oak's laboratory to rotate. A flock of Pidgey soar overhead, as noon begins to give way to an early evening. However, not is all peaceful as it seems. On the first floor of Professor Oak's Laboratory, there is the hiss of a sliding door. A trio of Team Rocket personnel filter into the room, one staying outside to watch for Oak, whilst the other two move about the rows of the storage facility. Each are dressed in a plain black outfit, with the standard old-fashioned cap whose bill covered their eyes. While the two shuffle through the facility, dumping as many pokeballs as they can into their each individual bags, the one at the door lets out a small sigh.

This particularly displeased-looking grunt goes by the name of Michael Wolf. This tanned youth of about seventeen stands on-watch at the entryway. It is clear by the look on his face, he's rather uncomfortable with the task. One could likely tell he didn't want to be here on this assignment, and he knew in his heart, nothing could be farther from the truth. Unlike a few of the other rocket recruits, the black-haired Michael came to join the Organization under unfortunate circumstances, a result of necessity rather than desire.

Around the age of fifteen, one dark night around midnight, a white-furred pokemon by the name of Absol had appeared on outskirts of his home on Cinnabar Island. Despite the commotion it had stirred up, most people remained fast asleep, paying little attention to the strange creature not seen in the Kanto region. A few days prior, all pokemon had mysteriously vanished from the region, which had the inhabitants curious as to why. Some quakes had also occurred prior to its eruption, but again, these were passed off as minor things, just being another part of everyday life. Despite this, they paid no heed to this occurrence, and found the appearance of this pokemon strange, but nothing to be concerned of.

The commotion had, however, awoken Michael. After taking a little time to wake himself up completely from being disturbed, he approached the window of the second floor of his house in his room, only to arrive there as the ground began to shake. Unlike prior quakes in the region, this was no minor quake. Portions of hills and the Cinnabar Island Volcano had begun to crumble in the form of large rock slides, wiping out various homes built along the sides of hills. As people rushed out of their homes in confusion, they were greeted with an even worse sight.

The smell of ash in the air was unmistakable. From the top of the volcano, grayish black smoke had been billowing out, rising miles in the sky. The light of the moon and minor lights of the city only served to make it more ominous, as the people stared on in awe and confusion, even as volcanic ash began to rain down upon them. The base of the cloud begun to take a dull, red glow, as the magma and gas within met its breaking point. The quakes and noise of the earth shaking grew louder, along with the red glow. The noise was met with an extraordinarily loud one, nearly deafening. Magma burst from the volcano in a manner so violent, the sides of the top of the volcano had ruptured. The resulting shockwave of the blast had been so violent, when it rushed through the area, buildings weak in structure had nearly been blown away, while windows, doors, anything glass had shattered. Loud rushing noises, similar to a train had been heard, as debris and lava bombs began to rain down upon the entire area, while lava had quite literally began to pour out of the volcano, destroying everything in its path.

Now in fear instead of wonder, the inhabitants of the island began to flee to the shore, despite the raining ash and debris. Having trained heavily in case of such a disaster like that, the Officer Jenny and team stationed on the Island had tried desperately to keep evacuation orderly, sending survivors to various boats, and injured to medical boats for on-sea treatment. Inhabitants with their own boats or water-faring pokemon took to the seas themselves, desperate to escape the destruction as quickly as possible. Inside the Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy and Chansey were feverishly rushing about, initiating emergency poke ball transfers to the Vermillion City Pokemon Center, and carting injured pokemon to the medical boat.

Soon enough, as the lava neared the buildings, the officers were checking all houses destroyed or not, seeking survivors. Casualties were quickly extracted, and all valuables ignored, as the officers rushed for the shore. Meanwhile, Michael, his hand wounded from the shattering glass, bolted from his room. He rushed to the bathroom, and quickly bandaged his hand, not wanting to get an infection from the falling ash. "Mom? Dad?" he called out, exiting from the bathroom. He was able to temporarily ignore the loud rushing, and the occasional crash or scream, intent on finding his parents and getting out as quickly as possible. His rush to their room was interrupted, however, by a rather loud rushing sound. He skidded to a stop just in time as a rather large lava bomb saw fit to plow through his home, destroying a good portion of the hallway, all the way to floor one. It split open on that floor, the resulting lava cutting like butter to the basement, while simultaneously igniting the first floor.

Having avoided death by mere inches, he took a few steps back, as the flames from the object began to engulf the hallway. He raised his shirt to block his mouth so he wouldn't breathe in the ash, and started to turn away. A lack of his parents' response indicated to him that it was quite possible they'd already escaped from the building and, clinging to that hope, he took off running in the opposite direction. As he descends his stairs, he again had to skid to a stop, as a portion of them had caved in as a result of the impact. Not being particularly athletic, yet not wanting to die like this, he stepped back a few feet, before he ran as fast as he could, and took a leap of faith over the gap. His stomach met the stairs, as he clawed desperately to avoid plummeting to the inferno that was his basement. With a grunt, he reached out, grabbing an oak railing pole. Having taken a moment to thank his parents for not skimping on the décor, he used the strongly-grounded banister support to pull himself out of the staircase, and onto the stairs, where he laid against the railing for a moment, in order to catch his breath. His relief had been short-lived, however, as a rather loud groaning had been heard. He quickly pulled himself to his feet, and wiped his brow, before running downstairs. He knew the house was severely damaged, and he only had limited time before the walls came crashing down around him.

On his way towards the front door, he'd grabbed a heavy coat, and wrapped it around himself as he ran for the window, as the front door was blocked by flame. He'd seen this in a movie once, and truly didn't know whether it would be smart to imitate what he'd seen on TV, but seeing no other option, he took a running jump through the window in a sort of diving motion. He landed right on his back: the heavy coat cushioning his fall. After regaining his breath, he stood, and stumbled away from the house. He heard snapping noises, however, he refuses to turn around to watch his house burn to the ground. The flames had completely engulfed the residence, before the weakened structure finally gave way, as the house collapsed in upon itself.

Around him, was only fire and destruction, and raining ash. He could hardly tell which way was up: not that he cared to anyway. Luck was on his side, however, as an Officer Jenny on a final sweep of the area pulled up next to him. She quickly hopped off her bike, and knelt next to him. She checked his vitals, before clamping a breathing mask over him. "Are you alright?!" she asked, looking around a little. Not waiting for a response though, she lifted the somewhat stunned Michael up, and lead him to her motorcycle. She climbed on and, showing a good amount of strength, pulled him on behind her. So he wouldn't fall off, she handcuffed his hands around her stomach. She leaned forward, and started up her motorcycle, speeding back towards the southern shore.

Though the motorcycle was relatively blackened with ash, it remained strong in the face of such conditions, having being specially fitted so ash wouldn't clog the intake or make its way to the gas tank or fuel lines. The two of them weave down the road, as fast as they can manage, dodging the various debris or burning trees. Officer Jenny drove with expertise, narrowly avoiding the occasional lava bomb or falling tree. Their luck ran out, however as, when they neared the edge of the city towards the shore, a lava bomb hit the ground, exploding outwards in a ribbon-like appearance. Unable to avoid this, Officer Jenny's bike had driven right through the lava. The intense heat instantly blew the tires, causing her to lose control of her bike. Her struggle to regain control ended with it colliding with a piece of debris. As the collision occurred, the back of the motorcycle lurched forward, hurling the two for quite a distance. Fortunately, their luck returned, as a pair of Blastoise from the local fire department, the last of a line of pokemon trying to keep the devastation of the eruption at bay to buy time for the inhabitants escape, managed to catch them. They quickly turned, and handed the pair off to a Nurse Joy there, before turning back in time to blast water against an oncoming Lava Bomb.

As the remaining inhabitants evacuated in time, and Officer Jenny and Michael moved onto a medical ship, the line of defense moved back. All inhabitants of the island evacuated, the remaining vessels sailed out to sea, leaving nature to take back the island. Meanwhile, Michael was being treated on the ship for his injuries, including cuts, burns, and inhalation.

Four weeks later, the ash had finally dissipated from the sky. Due to the amount of magma that had poured out, the walls of the volcano had become unable to support the weight, and collapsed inward, causing for the formation of a Caldera, which eventually filled with water. Michael was finally released from an urgent care facility in the Vermilion City Hospital, where injured persons had been moved to for further medical treatment. Inquiries about his parents had lead nowhere, leaving him in the dark about whether they were even still alive; they were not named on the list of evacuees or fatalities. Though he had been insistent upon staying until he heard word of his parents, he eventually had to be escorted from the premises by security to make room for people who actually needed use of the facility, and tossed into the world alone, with little more than the slightly signed clothes on his back, a pocket full of spare change, and a hospitalization bill in excess of a hundred thousand pokedollars.

He had wandered the Kanto region for months, alone, surviving off what he could from the wild. It was only a while after, when he was approached somewhere in the Fuchsia City around the Safari Zone. A person, dressed in a white Team Rocket outfit had caught his attention. He gave Michael a promise that, in joining the organization, he would find a form of family, and all past debts would be paid off, in return for his allegiance to Giovanni Boss. Having nowhere else to turn to, he conceded to the conditions. Issued the standard Grunt outfit and the hat, he went on to serve Team Rocket, never more than half-heartedly doing missions out of a lack of desire to commit such dark acts.

Such a path had brought him to where he is now: a watch for his two partners in crime as it were, a dirty blond-haired female named Kite, and a black-haired male named Sam. Michael had earned the nickname 'Little Lamb' due to his passive roles in the trio's operations, always preferring to be a lookout or similar. Though this aggravated the other two, they had figured it would be best to leave him to his own devices rather than make him participates, as to nor cause him to jeopardize their mission. However, unfortunately for them, their mission would be jeopardized whether they like it or not.

As Sam shovels one of the many poke balls into his bag, an alarm suddenly begins to ring out. Apparently, after the last Team Rocket infiltration, Professor Oak and assistant Tracy had installed pressure-sensitive switches under random pokeballs. There is a mechanical noise, as the door slams shut, and locks, separating the pair from Michael. Michael turns around, letting out a surprised noise, before fighting with the door. Unable to free his companions, he panics, and begins to run down the hall, afraid of being caught. His training in the Team Rocket facility had earned him a rather large increase in running speed and strength. He runs down the long hallway, skidding to a halt as, from the sides, a pair of Officer Jenny from Viridian City appear. He takes off in the other direction, only to have to stop again upon coming face-to-face with Professor Oak and Tracey Sketchit. He looks back and forth between the two, clearly panicked about his next move. He would fight, but he carried no pokemon on his person, and above that, was sure the Officer Jenny carried some sort of projectile weapon, whether it be lethal or non-lethal.

The four close in from both sides, approaching slowly, lest Michael do anything foolish. Professor Oak raises his hands, holding them in a position that conveys his desire for him to calm down. "Now now, boy. Don't do anything rash." he speaks, trying to keep him calm. "Just wait right there, and everything will work out just fine." he says, trying to convey a sort of 'silver lining' message. However, this doesn't work out so well as anticipated, as Michael's panic visibly begins to increase. He looks around quickly, starting to sweat. Fearing he might try something, the Officer Jenny draw their standard-issue Kingler and Koff handguns. Before any further action can be taken, however, a bright pink glow envelops Michael. Looking just as confused as the other four, he starts to kick a bit, as the glow shines brighter. There is a brief flash of light, as he phases out of sight in a sort of teleporting-like fashion, leaving the remaining four surprised, and confused.

* * *

Location Unknown..

The glow disappears from Michael's body, as he finds himself floating in an endless, purple, somewhat tie-dye-looking space. He appears quite confused, both as to his location, and to the fact that he cant tell up from down, or left from right. He figured if he were to somehow flip upside down in this vast space, his perspective wouldn't really change. There appeared to be no entry or exit point; no means of telling how he got in or out, or even from that hallway. His confusion, however, is temporarily halted by a feeling of much relief to be out of the situation he had just been in. Who or whatever removed him from that place, he would have to thank them personally.

His wishes are fulfilled as, before his eyes, a glowing, pink orb appears. The glow fades, revealing it to be some sort of barrier, which then flickers out of existence. Left behind, is a small, pink, somewhat catlike creature, recognizable to all who can tell as Mew. A short time after the meeting, she was given time calm down, and think on the words of her companions. She knew she was right, but that they, too, made valid points. Acting like the ones which they aimed to stop could only damage their cause; if she were going to recruit someone, it would have to be with their permission. She had to take matters into her own hands, as again, through further thinking, she figured that one being captured wasn't enough. Surely, she couldn't put another companion in trouble and, containing the power she did, figured this to be the both easier and faster route. Fortunately for her, the perfect recruit came in the form of Michael. Her brief search of the southern Kanto region had led to her discovery of the boy, who had currently been in the middle of a Team Rocket operation. Despite his affiliation, she could sense the strength and purity of his heart, and a glimpse into his memories showed his rather depressing history, leading her to conclude he could be the perfect candidate, both for the purity of his heart, and for his connection with Team Rocket. Fortunately, she had been able to get him at a good time. She floats there; long, slender tail gently swaying from side to side. She floats around his head a bit, inspecting him, before stopping in front of his face. She does a mid-air flip, before letting out an energetic 'Mew!'. She looks up, and around, before looking back into his surprised, amazed eyes. "You! You're just the boy I've been looking for!" she says, having establish a psychic line of sorts with him.

Michael blinks and, thinking this to be a dream, slowly reaches out, and gives Mew's nose a gentle poke. She moves back slightly, and rubs her nose, but otherwise doesn't do much, an action which takes Michael by surprise. "You're real?!" he exclaims, sounding as surprised as he looks. " You're really real?! Where am I? Where'd everyone go? How are you talking to me? Why did you bring me here?" he asks, obviously having quite a bit of questions, but giving mew little no time to answer.

Remaining calm and collective, Mew performs a forwards flip in air, before nodding. "I'm really real, you're in a special place, everyone is back where they were before, I'm talking to you with my mind, and I need to ask something of you .. something important." she says, her cheerful demeanor giving way to a more serious one. "I know about you. About your past. About your dislike of the Team Rocket organization.. There are much more evil than you realize." she says, making sure to keep his full attention by maintaining direct eye contact. Sensing his desire to inquire further, she gives him no such opportunity, and continues on with her explanation. "They experiment on pokemon and humans.. they kidnap and do horrible things to people who oppose them…. They.. They have a complete disregard for fellow humans, pokemon, they go against nature itself!" she exclaims, momentarily letting her passion overwhelm her. After managing to regain control of her emotions, she lets out a small sigh, and nods. "I.. .. This is a lot to ask of you, but I want you to help us.. to destroy them. We need you to take on another form, and work with a genius mind to infiltrate their headquarters and.. and bring it down at its core! I'll change you back right after. Promise." The promise seemed to be a little childish, or possibly a little over the top, but she felt it the best way to end it would be on a high note, or at least, an assurance he would be normal again.

Michael blinks. Mew's words had been a lot to take in at once, meaning he had a bit of information to process. Though she had been right about Team Rocket, he knew it from the rumors he heard during his time in the organization, and he would be happy to go against the organization, the vagueness of her words confuses him. Her statement about 'another form' had been particularly confusing and, not necessarily wanting to agree to help without the confusion cleared, decides to inquire about this. "Another form?' he asks, clearly sounding confused.

She tilts her head, and raises one paw to her chin, looking perplexed about how to explain it. "Imagine.. Ditto… but instead of reconfiguring my own cellular structure, I would be reconfiguring yours through a combination of different pokemon powers. It's completely reversible, and in the end, I'll even make any changes if you'd like." she says, trying her best to make the idea at least relatively appealing. Though she was sure a lot of people would leap at the idea, she didn't need just anyone; she needed someone like Michael. She smiles a little, thinking an attempt to be sweet and reassuring might work well in her favor. She didn't really intend to be manipulative like this, but she knew: desperate times called for desperate measures, and she had to try the hard sell.

"Wait.. so you want.. to turn me into a pokemon.. and work with someone else.. to bring down Team Rocket..?" He scratches the back of his head a little. It was a lot to wrap his head around, yet somehow, a part of him could understand exactly what she wanted of him. Without inquiring as to why him or what the plan was, something you might expect someone in his situation to ask about, he gives a single nod. "I'll do it! .. so long as I can choose what pokemon I become!" he says, in a statement that causes as much surprise for him as it does Mew. Truth be told, he'd always found the lives of pokemon intriguing. Before the eruption, when not busy doing day to day activities to help around the house, he would often wander into the wooded areas surrounding the pain part of the city to observe and sometimes spend time with the pokemon. As a result of this, he'd always carried a minor desire to give a pokemon's life a shot, which skyrocketed when he was left to fend for himself, though not to a point where it became some sort of debilitating depression. This, he figured, was finally his chance to turn the tides in his favor; to have something go his way for once. Assisting in Team Rocket's downfall seemed pretty much icing on the cake to him, as he carried no loyalties due to his reason for joining.

Mew, slightly taken aback by his surprising reaction, takes a few moments to recover, before giving a small nod. Though this seemed far too good to be true, she decided it best not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and proceed "Deal! .. now, close your eyes, think of the pokemon you'd like to become.. Don't choose anything too big, just choose a nice, small pokemon you like." she says, closing her eyes. After a few minutes, she nods, and pokes him on the forehead. 'I sense it." she says. "Brace yourself. It might be a little.. Uncomfortable." she says, nodding. A minute of concentration later, and she gently hits him upon the head: an indication she was had started.

The impact, though minor, causes a complete numbing sensation to overwhelm Michael. Though he initially was freaked out about this, he figured it probably would prevent him from feeling parts of him jammed into others and others torn out; a thing he shivers at the mere thought of. The initial changes are minor, so much so that even he doesn't notice him. His hazelnut eyes take on a reddish tint, eventually overcoming the entire iris, leaving behind two, fiery red eyes. His skin also takes on a darker, more tanned hue, save for a portion going from his neck down to his waistline, which lighten to a sort of cream-color. A small pressure is felt, as his skin pushes in slightly, removing any sort of defining patterns, and replacing them with horizontal lines stretching about the length of his torso to about where his neck meets his shoulders. A small, tingling sensation creeps across his skin, as any hair falls off, including that from his head. His skin hardens slightly, as very small, very fine, invisible to the unaided eye cracks appear in them, indicating they have taken on the form of scales. The first, quite noticeable change occurs, as his body seems to be pressed outwards in all directions. His height is reduced to about half its former, to a size of about three feet tall. His musculature and skin sort of 'poof' out in all direction, taking on a certain outline. As some of the excess bone mass, skin, and muscle tissue begin to collect in his skull and on his hand, the bottom of his spine, with nowhere to go, juts out. Some of the excess muscle and skin tissue migrate to that location, taking on the form of a minor spiked tail. His fingers, with the exception of his thumb, meld together to create a sort of mitten-like hand, as his fingernails move to match up with his toenails, which have since spliced together to form a sort of large toenail on each foot. The leathery pads of his feet move to one, oval-shaped area, before darkening to a sort of crisp, sienna brown. The excess bone bass in his skull pierces his scaley skin, and covers most of his head, leaving eye sockets and nostril holes, before elongating and separating to a jaw and headpiece, with the head sloping slightly. Parts of the outer skull protrude, making what appear to be horns on both the head and sides of the face. The excess tissue in his head go to work, pushing out in all directions in a way which would fill the skull effectively. Finally, the last bits of the transformation begin to occur. Veins and arteries are thoroughly rearranged in a course-effective manner, as well as his nervous system. As soon as these are mapped out, a small bit of fogginess occurs, as the part of his brain governing major and fine motor skills are reworked to match with his current form. In addition, a part of his mind is added, telling him how to do the various pokemon attacks, which is then linked to his instincts so he wouldn't have to go through the entire process of willing himself to do an attack whenever he desired; it would just happen when he tried to. Information about receiving and speaking words also changes, to a way which would tune his ears to the 'pokemon frequency': that is, allow him to speak and understand the universal language of Pokemon. The transformation finishes, when the skin on the palm of his 'hand' splits, and the excess bone mass gathered, pushes out a somewhat femur-shaped bone of which is at least half his height. As the split closes, the bone sort of just floats there, before floating into his hand under Mew's psychic powers. What had been Michael, now stands a Marowak in human clothing.

As the numbing fades, and Michael is left to look at his new form, Mew flies around him a bit, admiring her handiwork. "I was surprised when you chose that pokemon." she says, her voice filled with genuine surprise. "Most people would probably try for something big and rare and all-powerful. Though I must admit, I _really _got to try something different this time." she says, smiling.

Michael flexes his hand muscles a bit, before scratching the back of his head. "Well, you said 'small'.. and I've always been a fan of Marowak, so.." he says, his voice trailing off a bit. "..anyway.. now what happens?" he asks, still getting used to his new form, though truly he didn't need to. Despite Mew's thorough transformation process, suddenly changing from human to pokemon left him nothing short of amazed, and practically dying to take his new form out for a test run. His thoughts are broken, however, when he clears his throat. "Hey! I'm not saying 'Marowak, Marowak'!"

Mew giggles slightly, doing a mid-air somersault. "Of course not, silly! I rewired your brain so you can speak and understand out language! .. don't worry, you can still understand _humans _but if you try to convey any sort of message to them, all they'll hear is 'Marowak', in most cases. You can still recognize letters and numbers, too!" she says, smiling a bit. "As for what's next? Well.. I have to take you back to the Ilex Forest for training, while we wait for the last two pieces of this puzzle to arrive!" she says, as she takes his hand. "Come on, let's go!"

And, without waiting for a response, the two of them teleport away, under Mew's power. With the lack of anybody in this 'world', it fades into a sort of inky blackness once more.


	7. Beginning of the End

Sorry again about the long update, but it took me a while to think of something good to write. Finally, early in the morning, I just started to type and suddenly it was like PLOT BUNNY ATTACK! I quite literally wrote this chapter in a day.

This is Chapter 7 of Journey Through the Darkness, entitled Beginning of the End. It's simply the journey of Nathaniel and Pikachu across the Johto region to their final destination: Ilex Forest.

Summary:

There is a famous hacker nicknamed Crimson Pikachu, whose crowning achievement is the fall of the Hoenn branch of Team Rocket. Unfortunately for him, he cant leave well enough alone, as the result of his hacking attempt on Team Rocket's core computer server leaves him on a.. Journey Through the Darkness

(totally cheesy summary, I know)

**Journey Through the Darkness**

Chapter 7: Beginning of the End

The sun is already moving to a more afternoon or early evening position, as Pikachu and Nathaniel near the end of the Forgotten Path. The rainbow in the sky guiding their way has faded, but the pair had remembered at least the general direction in which it was pointing. Though they both felt a strong urge to turn back to assist Ho-oh in any way they could, they knew that if they did, and something were to happen to them, Ho-oh's efforts would be in vain. At their current position, the trees had long-thinned out, leaving the two walking down a near-barren path to the end, which saw but a few patches of grass every so often, possibly do to the climate or mineral content of the soil being hard to support life.

The reason for the lack of vegetation reason of no concern to Nathaniel, though Pikachu appears slightly down, seeing how lifeless everything appeared. Her spirits are quickly revived at the sight that soon greeted them: the security fence. Nathan sits in front of it, clearly perplexed, but his calm soon fades as he starts in an uneasy pace from side to side. As he had expected, this side of the fence carries no maintenance hatch and, like the others, likely received its power via underground power lines, likely from new Bark Town or from the other fence. Suddenly, his pacing stops, as a sort of idea strikes him. Currently having no patience for finding a logical way around this obstacle giving the position of the sun and the newfound urgency in getting to the Ilex Forest, he stands in a bracing position. Though he wasn't sure if he had the power to do so, he still would attempt to do something that would otherwise be completely foreign to his character: use brute force instead of intellect.

Feeling a dark power inside of him well up, he makes a noise as he opens his mouth. A purple sort of energy flows from his mouth, as the rings adorning his body glow a bright yellow. The energy takes on a spherical shape, with energy arcing from it at times. As soon as it's at a fairly large size, he closes his mouth, causing the ball to fly at a rather high rate of speed towards the fence. Given the fence is an inanimate object, and ergo unable to dodge or otherwise defend itself, the attack hits dead on, resulting in an explosion of dark energy. When the unsettled dust clears, there remains a gaping hole in the fence, the wires split and collapsed. They still spark with electricity, but if one were to approach the fence with a proper jump, they could clear it without any risk of injury. Nathan, though surprised at this power he'd apparently pulled from nowhere, gives a bit of a grin at his accomplishment. Pikachu pats him on his 'shoulder'. "Wow! That was really really super cool!" she exclaims, obviously having been in awe by his display of strength. "Well-p, let's go! ONWARDS!" she exclaims excitedly as she points. She drops to all fours, and scampers off, jumping with just enough height and distance to clear the electrified wiring. Nathaniel follows, easily clearing it by putting all his energy into a nice jump.

As the two of them leave the general area of the gate, they push through an abundance of dry bush, come across a route marker. As indicated by print on the wooden sign, they are currently on Route 46. It shows north to be the Dark Cave and Route 45, and south to be Cherrygrove City. There is another route marker nearby, but given its state of disrepair and degradation, what it had been pointing to appears long-lost to time, though it could've been possibly a rather old marker indicating the Forgotten Path. Nathaniel clearly reads the newer marker, before giving a small nod, and bolting right around it, Pikachu in pursuit. Given the destination lay far southwest of their current location, heading north would be fruitless, and south might put them in danger by exposing them to the trainers of the city. Besides, he was on a quest: why not take in the off-the-road countryside-esque scenery on his way? There were no rules stating he must remain perfectly on-track according to route. With this reasoning in mind, he charges through the lush grass and small hills separating one route from the next, going a little slower than his full speed in order to take in the fresh air and scenery, in an attempt to clear his senses and mind of the high altitude travel and Ho-oh incident that had occurred but not a few hours prior.

As fast as the hills came, they left, as another well-beaten path appears. Again ahead of them lies a route marker. Naturally, the writing on this one is different, indicating they're currently on Route 30, while Violet City and Cherrygrove City lie to the north and south, respectively. Again, finding no logic in strictly following routes, especially when such a great amount of danger to their health would be present in doing so, Nathaniel again charges around the marker. Ahead of him, instead of lush grass and green hills, sit's a small gathering of trees one might refer too as woods, or even a small forest. Taller grass under his paws, he rushes in, Pikachu not far behind.

Within the middle of the wooden area, sit a rather disheveled looking trio, consisting of a red-haired individual, a violet-haired individual, and a Meowth. The three are sitting on their knees on a sort of picnic blanket, surrounding a small pile of canned food. In the nearby trees, a torn and tangled hot air balloon rests, which had previously been in the shape of a Meowth. The redhead lets out a sigh, as she chews on some sort of grayish blob, which vaguely retains the appearance of meat. "Canned food again.." she says, in a tone conveying that she should be eating something high-class, yet was forced to settle whatever the blob tried its best to be.

"Yeah well we don't got da cash for da fancy stuff thanks to that twoyp an' his Pikachu!" the Meowth exclaims in a New York accent, obviously irritated already by the redhead's complaining.

The female, known as Jessie, flinches a little, and turns her head, giving Meowth a fierce glare. "Don't you think I know that?!" She exclaims. "Besides, if you learned Payday like all the OTHER Meowth, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

Hearing that comment, Meowth turns head to face her, returning her glare, the anger practically visibly sparking between their eyes. "I told ya' already! I used all dat energy learning to talk!!" he snaps back at her.

The violet-haired one, known as James, remains off to the side, quietly eating from his can. Obviously, by his look, their rather unpleasant exchange of words was nothing new to him. Relief comes, however, when his two teammates let out small sighs, and turn their attention back to their food, not really finding the energy needed to continue the argument as they are.

Suddenly, barging in from the bushes, Nathaniel enters the small area. Seeing the individuals, he skids to a stop, and stands defensively, prepared for trouble. Pikachu appears shortly after, and nearly bumps into him trying to stop in time. Their noise causes attention to be drawn to them, from the Trio.

The three look at the two new pokemon with looks of clear surprise, before grinning. Obviously to them, this was their opportunity to catch rare pokemon for the Boss, and they were planning on seizing it.

Jessie near-immediately jumps up, straightening up her slightly frayed hair, and brushing some of the mud and the like from her dirt-covered clothes. She stands, arms crossed, with a look of mischievousness clearly written all over her face. "Prepare for trouble, it's our lucky day!"

James the same and stands shoulder to shoulder with her, same arms-crossed, mischievous look-filled stance. "And make it double, things are going our way!"

Meowth scurries around, and puts up a large, post-modernly designed R logo. He adds some backlight for added dramatic effect, and waits for his entry. Jessie turns so her back is facing the large R logo, and places her hands on her hips. "To protect what's left of our reputation!"

James turns, but crosses one arm over his stomach. With his other arm, he rests his elbow on the palm of his hand, and draws a rose apparently out of thin air, holding it in front of his face in a sort of mysterious way. "To prevent us three from more humiliation!"

Jessie holds her pose, but uncrosses her arms. One arm she waves in front of her face in a sort of dramatic way, and holds it, palm facing upwards, fingers curled slightly. "To counter our failures with this success!"

James mirrors her pose, the rose vanishing to the thin air from whence it came. "By sending you to the Boss, he'll name us the best!"

Jessie crosses her arms again, turning away from James. She looks over to Nathaniel and Pikachu, complete seriousness all over her face. "Jessie."

Again, James mirrors her actions to the T, standing back to back with her. "James."

Jessie suddenly turns to James, taking a full step forward. She stretches out her arm straight ahead. "Team Rocket, it's been some years, but we'll again stand tall!"

James, as one might expect, mirrors her action. "And us three wont stop until we've caught them all!"

Meowth, having been perched carefully on the R, does a few min-air somersaults as he lands on the ground. He stands in what can be only easily described as a beckoning cat stance, save for the fact he has both forepaws up and curled instead of the just one. "Meowth, right on da ball!"

Nathaniel just stares at the trio, with a look of disbelief. Did they really just recite an elaborate motto for no reason? And, furthermore, did that Meowth just talk human language, or did his ears mistake him? However, those thoughts are quickly lost to another realization: they'd mentioned Team Rocket. He gives a fierce glare, as, though he's not quite sure why, feels a strong rage building inside of him. He opens his mouth, as the dark energy forms into a sphere again. This time however, it builds up to far past what it had been before. The Trio look startled by this amount of power and, not exactly wanting to get blasted off again so quickly, run in the opposite direction.

Their action comes too late however, as Nathaniel closes his mouth, firing off the Dark Ball attack. It strikes the Trio dead in the back, launching them through the trees, and into the stratosphere with their Meowth balloon, picnic blanket and food, and motto background setup. As they fly off, the three shout: "It looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!!" before Nathaniel and Pikachu almost hear what they swear to be a small 'ding'. Nathaniel calms down, and pants a little, obviously not used to such a display of energy. ".. .. Team Rocket .. .. .. That name sounds familiar, but why…? And why did I feel so.." He mutters, quietly, so that he wouldn't have to face rapid-fire questioning from Pikachu. Figuring Ho-oh's words to be true, that he would find the answers to all his questions upon arrival at the Ilex Forest, he bolts off, not even giving Pikachu a chance to comment on what had just occurred.

As Nathaniel and Pikachu exit the wooded area, they again come face to 'face' with a route marker. This, like others, had different markings, and a Trainer Tip referring to something or another that was completely irrelevant to Nathaniel. The marker places them on Route 31, with the Ruins of Alph and Violet City to the North, and Route 32 and the Union Cave to the South. As with the previous two markers, Nathaniel again rushes around, going off the beaten path, and through a small valley in between two steep hills, past a small bunch of trees. There is a gentle breeze causing the soft, bright green grass to sway, but otherwise, all seems at peace. As they enter a spot directly in the center of the three hills, it is clear that this is not the case.

What had once been a breeze, quickly turns to a high-speed, violent wind. Grass on the hills, even the trees sway in its wake, as rain clouds materialize, blocking out a good expanse of the sky in what can only be described by onlookers as the onset of a freak storm. Both Nathaniel and Pikachu try their best to stand their ground, as the wind speed increases to that which is near enough to blow them away. Nathan however, stands as strong against the wind as he can, determined to not let anything stand in his way. Rain begins to fall from the sky, covering the entire expanse of the cloud cover with fresh, cold precipitation. There is a roar of thunder and a crash of lightning, as the wind picks up to an even faster speed.

From the clouds, a white whirlwind appears, near-instantly slamming into the ground a few yards away from the duo. Unlike other whirlwinds, this one does not tear up its surrounding countryside. However, after around a minute or so of touching down, the speed of the whirlwind slows down a little, before dissipating. Left behind, a few feet off the ground, floats a creature of a pale-silver tone, with hints of blue here and there. The creature gently lowers to the ground, perching on its haunches, as it lowers its wings, causing the fierce winds to settle. The rain and occasional bolt of lightning reveal its identity to be that of the Guardian of the Seas, known as Lugia. As with its Guardian of the Skies counterpart, the creature lowers its head a fair amount, in an attempt to be less intimidating and more on-level with Nathaniel and Pikachu. He stares with his calm, red eyes at the two awe-struck pokemon. His attempt to be non-intimidating appeared to be working, as the two pokemon before him settle down, not seeing him as the threat he'd initially appeared to be. Again like his counterpart, he speaks directly with their minds, his voice sounding smooth, yet with a strong determination behind it. "Fear not, for I have been tasked with the duty of escorting you to Ilex Forest. You are near-there, but with the loss of Ho-oh, Team Rocket around every turn, we must remain ever careful that you get to the forest. You may be our only hope to restore at least a semblance balance to this world."

* * *

Meanwhile, at Team Rocket headquarters..

Again, Giovanni sits behind an oak desk on which his elbows rest. His fingers are returned to their interlocked position, as his chin rests upon them. His eyes are closed, as he's currently trying to attain a state of deep thought and concentration. Though he would never outwardly show it, he felt within him a great deal of excitement over the latest acquisition. The legendary bird Ho-oh, he knew, would be able to advance their research and development on anti-pokemon and pokemon capturing devices tenfold, not to mention the fact that his R and D Division would have a field day collecting samples and using them to create weapons and enhanced restraints. A small grin spreads across his face, as the thoughts of what results might yield from such a capture. Furthermore, he didn't worry that it would be a repeat of the Mewtwo incident: TRAINSS and advances made in restraint and containment technology would ensure that Ho-oh be unable to escape.

A small beeping noise emanates from his laptop, completely derailing his train of thought. A minor look of displeasure crosses face, as he turns attention to it. The screen showed a message in red over black background lettering. The lettering flashes as it beeps, obviously trying its best to get his attention, which it is successful in doing. The letters read: Incoming Call: JRMTE. Giovanni's look changes to one of curiosity, as he wasn't sure why he would be getting communications from them, especially since he ordered all teams to aid in the safe return of Ho-oh to the Kanto base. He presses the Enter key, causing for a spinning Rocket Ball to appear. Below the ball, the words 'Connecting.." appear, with the dots appearing and disappearing at one second intervals. After about five seconds, the face of a rather pale-looking individual in the standard Grunt uniform appears. Giovanni's look of displeasure returns. "I thought I ordered all Johto teams to assist in the return of Ho-oh! Why are you contacting me?!" he says in a stern, loud, authoritative voice.

The grunt looks slightly panicked, but salutes. "A-ah! Nicolai Yurkevski here, leader of Johto Region Mobile Team: Epsilon! We-we're currently a mile or so southwest of Goldenrod City, and have run into fast winds and a highly unusual weather pattern! W-we believe, sir, that this might indicate the presence of Lugia in the surrounding area at the center, but at this time we have no visual confirmation! Requesting that the SRS of Johto backs us up in our investigation pending visual.." Suddenly, a voice from the background interjects. "There it is!" a person says. Nicolai turns his attention briefly to the speaker, then back to Giovanni. "Sir! Visual confirmation has been made! Lugia appears to be on-land, at the following coordinates at least a mile south southwest of Goldenrod! Requesting SRS backup IMMEDIATELY!" he says, as he uploads the coordinates, which draw up a map in the corner of Giovanni's computer.

Giovanni looks at the map, then back to Nicolai. A grin spread back across his face. He knew that today would be the luckiest of days for both him and the organization. "Request approved." he says, and presses a key to close the conversation. The window cuts out, as he turns back, allowing TRAINSS to do the job of deployment.

* * *

Hills between Route 32 and 34

Nathaniel steps forward, looking up at Lugia. "C-can you answer my questions?" he asks, feeling slightly nervous due to the fact that Lugia seemed to be giving off an aura more powerful than Ho-oh, and he felt a tingle of fear and pressure. "About who I am.. Everything.." he says, trying his best to look strong and determined, despite being in front of such a powerful presence. Lugia gives a small shake of his head in response, indicating it to be a 'no'. "I cannot, for I do not have the answers to the questions you ask, nor do we have the time to make pleasantries. We must hurry to the Ilex Forest, lest.." He's cut off by the unmistakable noise of heavy vehicles creeping over the hills, and through the valley. A look of surprise shows on his features, as he lifts his head. "We're too late. Run! I'll hold them off! You must make it to the Ilex Forest. You've come too far to be captured now!"

Nathaniel, though initially reluctant, remembers what had happened when he tried to persist in asking Ho-oh questions, and runs off. He again returns to drag off Pikachu, who was again staring in awe at Lugia. Soon after they leave the scene, three black vehicles on the back appear, with the Team Rocket logo on the back, a sign that the SRS team had a rather fast response time. They each line up in position, and prepare for battle with the Lugia. The pokemon, enraged, begins to flap his wing. The front line quickly set up anti-wind barriers, while the drivers of the squad truck press a button, which enables a grounding mechanism so they're not tossed away in the wind. Lugia lifts into the air, beginning to glow blue, as a yellow-orange ball of energy forms in front of his mouth, the telltale signs of charging to use his Aeroblast move.

As Nathaniel and Pikachu rush down the valley, a rather loud explosion shakes the ground. They press on anyway, through a minor forested area, coming out on another route with a route marker. As the previous ones, this one directed them north to Goldenrod, south to the Ilex Forest, and placed them on Route 34. As with the last sign, there was a Trainer Tip containing completely irrelevant information, which he again chose to ignore. Feeling a sudden burst of energy an determination, he shakes off the rain which had long-stopped falling, and charges right past the sign, and into a thick, forested area.

If it was ever day before Lugia's storm struck, one wouldn't be able to tell from being here. Due to the closeness of the trees, all of the sun had been blocked out, leaving the place to look as though it were in perpetual night. Suddenly feeling a sense of calm, he slows his pace to a mild stroll, taking in the sights and sounds of the mostly-undisturbed forest. He picks a berry of some sort with his teeth as the walks, eating it to fill his growling stomach. Pikachu does the same, except adds a small comment about how hungry she is she could eat a Ponyta. Nathaniel chuckles a little at this comment, and glances over his shoulder, giving her a small smile. It'd been a long journey. Despite the amount of time or lack thereof the journey lasted, it was long enough to where he felt a sort of bond with her. She returns the smile, and tilts her head slightly, letting out a small 'Pika'.

As the pair wander deeper into the forest, they hear nothing but minor noises. However, the tranquility experienced is broken, by the noise of grunting coming from somewhere off to the side. Curious enough to follow the noise, Nathaniel and Pikachu head in that direction, coming upon a rather old, traditional Japanese shrine made to honor the Guardian of the Forest. The grunts appear to be coming from a nearby Marowak, who is busy waving around its trademark bone club, trying its best to train with an invisible mentor. Out of the corner of its eye, it spots Nathaniel and Pikachu, and turns to them, growling. "Intruders! Leave now or .. else!" he says, obviously ready for a fight. The pair take on defensive stances, ready to fight should the need arise. Before things get out of hand, however, there is a small giggle, as the faint outline of a pokemon appears between the two. Mew seems to materialize out of thin air, floating in the air between the opposing sides. "Settle down, everyone!" she says in a soft voice. "Michael, these are the two I told you about. Nathaniel and Pikachu!"

Nathaniel steps back, a look of surprise clear on his face. 'Wha..? How did you know what my name was??" he asks. Pikachu walks over to Mew and holds out her paw, giving a friendly smile. "Hi! I'm Pikachu!" she exclaims excitedly.

Mew, in response, shakes Pikachu's paw with both of hers. "Mew!" she says, before turning back to Nathaniel. A friendly smile appears, as she gently floats over. "I know a lot about you, Nathaniel. I know everything." she says, placing a paw on his nose. "We've waited a while for you to get here you know! You're a smart kid. I knew you'd follow my hints!" she says, her ears twitching slightly. "Oh but how rude of me.." she says, floating back a little. "I suppose I should go on and explain myself. But first, let me clear your mind.. You took a really nasty hit there, you know." she says, as she takes on a soft, pink glow. Using her psychic abilities, she probes into the depths of Nathaniel's mind, and starts on the long road of reciting facts about him aloud, in effect slowly lifting darkness on his memory, brought on by his terrible head injury from the drop off. It had been a long journey, but Nathaniel was finally on the road to recovery.


	8. With the Wind at Their Heels

It's here! Finally! Journey Through the Darkness 8: With the Wind at Their Heels is HERE. It's been a bit .. I tried to upload more than twice in a month but I ran into a dead end, but about a week ago I finally punched through and dragged myself to the finish.

This chapter focuses on the formulation of the plan and infiltration of the Team Rocket base. This chapter details a bit about the base itself, and how it appears and operates, down to a fine detail. It also talks about the history of the base, as an added bonus.  


* * *

**Journey Through the Darkness**

Chapter 8: With the Wind at Their Heels

It had been a few days since the darkness that had once clouded Nathaniel's mind had been lifted, thanks to the actions of Mew. With Lugia and Ho-oh's promises fulfilled, Nathaniel, though usually more of a 'self-preservation' mentality, found himself feeling indebted to them. Because of that, and the closeness he felt with his traveling companion, he found himself agreeing to help them out, much to the excitement of Mew and Guardian of the Forest, Celebi. If that weren't surprising enough to him, he found the transition from human to pokemon to be much smoother than he'd anticipated. Whether this was because his mind had time to develop into 'Umbreon Mode', his mind just allowed him to do it naturally without thinking as when he was still human, or whether Mew intervened to make sure that the confusion between two drastically different forms was not present in his 'awakening', he knew not, but he felt extremely relieved he wouldn't have to find out.

Currently, Nathaniel is sitting on his haunches, staring at one of his forepaws. He splays the paw, causing incredibly sharp claws to protrude from the spaces between. Obviously amazed at the physical changes, despite seeming used to them, he just stares at the paw as he extends and retracts his claws. He makes sure his claws are extended rather well, before gently rapping a nearby rock with them. He retracts them, and tries to use only one of the 'fingers', however, ends up using the entire paw. He gives a frustrated sigh, as he shakes his paw a little, a clear look of annoyance coming over his face. "Darn it! How can I type like this?! What, you think I can just.. break into Team Rocket's layer using these?!" he exclaims, looking in Mew's direction .

Mew does a few loops in the air, before floating over to him, gently bonking him on the head. "Silly Nathaniel!" she says, and floats in such a manner that she's upside down, staring into his eyes. "You wont need your silly little fingers! Michael already has part of the plan set up!" she exclaims, as she flies around a little. She does a few small loops, before floating to the shrine, gently tapping on the side of it. "Celebi, it's time to wake up!" she says, tapping a little more. "It's just about time we started making our plans!" she says, and floats off to inform Pikachu and Michael, who had been busy talking. Pikachu, naturally, had been doing nothing short of questioning both Nathaniel and Michael practically all hours since the revelation of their former humanity. Though Nathaniel felt a little annoyed, Michael answered every question she could come up with, since he too had some questions he'd wished to ask if he could ever talk to a pokemon, and when opportunity knocked, he tended to answer. However, their current discussion is broken, as Mew flies between the two, indicating that it's time for more important business. The two nod, and rush back over to Nathan.

Meanwhile, the shrine lets out a bright, green glow, illuminating the surrounding forest in a good radius. What can only be adequately described as life energy, pulses from the shrine, bringing any plants it happens to be absorbed by to the peak of their health. Celebi exits from the shrine, and gathers with the others, as Michael takes the floor. He stretches a bit, and points at the ground with his club, before drawing a square on it. "…this.. Is Team Rocket's base." he says, then draws a circle. "That's the front door .. .." He steps back, and draws a few basement levels. Though he never achieved any rank higher than a grunt, he had developed a few friendships from people who knew more than he, despite the fact that inter-division conversations were strictly prohibited. "…this is the Research and Development level, where we need to go.. but we cant go until we go.. .. here." he says, tapping on a different level. "This .. here.. is the level Team Rocket's security grid operates out of. If we take that out, making it up here.." He indicates the R&D Level. "..will be almost as easy as pie. We can fix you and free Lugia and Ho-oh .. but we HAVE to take out their security or we wont have a chance!"

Nathaniel carefully reviews the plans, before glancing up at Michael. "…and we get in.. how?" he asks, tilting his head. So far, he was approving of the plan, particularly since it meant he could both be normal and have his revenge at the same time. A sort of.. having your cake and eating it too-type thing. "Once were in, how do we take out this system thing? What kind of system is it? Does it have any weaknesses? Do I have to hack it?" he asks, with a growing excitement. Obviously, he was up for a nice bout of man versus machine, despite the fact he had no fingers in order to face the security.

Michael nods quickly, and draws an X outside of the entrance. "We have to create a distraction here, somehow. We need to get TRAINSS.. the system's AI.. focused on a single spot. When it's focused, we sneak around.. here." he says drawing a rectangle on the ground, a bit away from the 'building'. "There's a hidden vent here.. .. we just crawl through the ducts until we get to TRAINSS! After that…." A brief pause. "..we play it by ear." he says, clearly unsure about where the plan goes from there.

Though Nathaniel prepares to express his opinion about the art of 'winging it', the chance is not presented to him, as Pikachu steps forward. "It's BRILLIANT!" she exclaims, clapping her hands. "Oooh, I'm so excited! I cant wait! Espionage action! Bringing down evil! We can be like Charizard's Angels, a group of crime-fighting super.. investigative pokemon except only one of us is a girl! Mew, you can be Bonsly!" she exclaims. Mew begins to do aerial flips, forgetting the importance of the task at hand, excited about the assigned role.

Nathaniel, ignoring the two talking about the show and about seeing it whenever they had the opportunity to, steps forward. "..how do we get the distraction to work?" he asks. "How do we even get there without all the risks of a cross-country trip?" These questions, the ones currently most burning in his mind, completely overshadow and push out the prior concerns over TRAINSS.

"With me." says a voice, as smooth as silk and flowing as water. There is the minor sound of grass crunching, as a gentle breeze blows through the forest. All attention turned now to the new arrival, as the form steps forward, revealing it to be the legendary 'dog', Suicune. The breeze it'd caused, moves through its fur, as it sits on its haunches, staring at them. Pikachu, of course, starts to stare in return, amazemed at the creature. Nathaniel and Michael briefly glance, the amazement of seeing such majestic pokemon having worn off around the third or fourth time. Celebi, however, looks displeased. She floats over, and crosses her arms. "Hey! No fair! You were supposed to wait for my cue!" she exclaims. Mew inquires as to Suicune's presence and Celebi, her anger quickly fading, turns to the other legendary, starting up some form of long, drawn out explanation.

Suicune moves forward, nudging Celebi out of the way. Like Nathaniel and Michael, he appeared to be seriously concerned over the task hand. He uses one of his claws to draw a line to the entrance. Having eavesdropped on their conversation, he is currently up to date on their plan, and as such required no form of recap. "..I returned from surveying the area about twenty minutes ago. There's a line of trees here." he says, drawing an arc. "I'll carry all of you back, and drop you off here.." he says, making a diamond shape around the side of the building, before making a distraction here." he says, drawing another diamond around the front entrance. "I can only distract him for so long. It is imperative that you get to your destination, because I will need to escape if things get out of hand."

After reviewing Suicune's plans, both Nathaniel and Michael give an approving nod. With the plans set, Suicune lays down. "Climb onto my back, and hold tight. If we leave now, with the North Wind at our heels, we should reach the base by day's end." he says, looking calm, despite the danger he would obviously be in. However, he was confident: he wasn't dubbed the Legendary Dog for nothing. Unlike Ho-oh and Suicune, he would be attacking in full force on his own, instead of attracting some form of specialized super squadron, though there was little doubt in his mind he would have little time before they managed to form one. In addition, his speed would be an asset which he knew the creatures of the sky and sea had not, leaving him in little real danger, should things go according to plan.

Michael and Nathaniel both climb onto Suicune's back, both having full knowledge that time was of the essence. Nathaniel found this position somewhat awkward, but managed to keep himself in an at least relatively stable position. Pikachu, still somewhat starstruck by the appearance of the pokemon, his guided onto his back via Mew's psychic powers. She leans forward, holding onto Nathaniel's shoulders.

Suicune stands and, after nodding in a sort of 'goodbye' fashion to Mew and Celebi, bolts off towards the southeast. The wind at their heels, they take off at an incredible speed, heading for the sea, leaving behind a waving Mew and Celebi, both of which should their hopes of good luck. Traversing the landscape at breakneck speeds, it arrives at the shore within a matter of minutes. Having picked up a good amount of speed, he leaps into the water and, much to the surprise of his passengers, runs west across the surface. Fortunately for him, a combination of his incredible speed and familiarity with water allow him to bolt across its surface in such a way that he doesn't break the surface tension. He continues west across the sea, destination in mind, as they cross the Kanto/Johto boarder within a matter of minutes.

Within mere moments after their crossing of the boarder, land comes into view. The north wind still at their backs, Suicune and his passengers charge forth, leaping quite a distance onto land. They make an easy landing, as their mode of transportation bounds across the road of Route 1, leaving most trainers out during this time of night wondering where the sudden breeze came from. Undeterred, however, he continues across the sprawling fields and trees, taking a gradual turn northwest, directly through the area between Routes 1 and 17. He had been able to pinpoint the location of their base, via a sort of Poke-GPS signal sent out by Lugia and Ho-oh during their transit to the base. Were it not for this signal, it's quite possible he wouldn't have located them so easily, though their main two sub-operations, the Celadon City Game Corner and the Viridian City Gym might lead him to pinpoint their general location anyway: between the Viridian Forest and the Indigo Plateau.

As the trees begin to thicken, he glances briefly to his left, seeing the midnight lights of the sleepy city, who managed to see peaceful rest, despite having the leader of an evil organization on their back step. Knowing them to be near their destination, he pulls a tight arc left. He cuts through Route 2, jumping from hill to hill and swerving between each tree, nearly knocking over an Officer Jenny on patrol in the process. Undeterred, he pulls a hard to the right, continuing on his movement through the thick forestry as only one with his speed and agility can, narrowly avoiding trees on multiple occasions. As he moves through the outskirts of the forest, he comes across an innocent bug catcher, trying its best to catch a fleeing Butterfree with an oversized net. Unable to avoid him in time, due to the fact he'd basically materialized from nowhere, he charges on,. Fortunately, the boy was kneeling slightly to catch his breath, providing Suicune the perfect opportunity to use him as a sort of springboard to propel himself over the last mass of trees on the edge of the forest, while simultaneously feeding the unfortunate one a mouth full of dirt.

As the trees begin to once more thin out, a wall comes into view. This wall measures at least fifteen feet tall in height, and thousands of feet in width, with a security camera set up every couple hundred feet. Behind the wall, lies the location known officially as Boss Estates.

The Boss Estates is property located due northwest of the Viridian Forest. As one might guess, it is the home of the Boss family. Built by Sir Ferdinando Boss, the great grandfather of Giovanni, ages ago. Boss Estates had been built on five acres of land, for the purpose not only housing his family, but serving as the base of operations for Team Rocket in its early years, when it was a family-oriented team simply known as R. As the organization branched out and grew in power, evolving over time, the building itself had grown over the years to match it, from a simple large house on an enormous plot of land, to a truly magnificent sight, having been torn down and reconstructed at least once per generation of Boss. The largest remodeling came when Giovanni returned from his failed Silph Co campaign. With his eyes open to the potential of science, he placed personal savings on the line in order to completely remodel the house, and construct the sublevels which then made up the organization. What was once a simple four story residence, hand been upgraded to a mansion that put even the one belonging to James' and his family to shame, utilizing the most modern of modern technologies. The seven sublevels had been added, as well as a garage, and two individual sublevel 'wings', all making for a massive underground base, with a simple, rather large three-story tall mansion as the cover.

Thanks to Giovanni's lack of a spending cap, he and a team of architects worked together to redesign a relatively simple floor plan, based off the needs of the organization, and the need to work around the massive security system. The center of the floor contained a two-story lobby area, with doors on either side towards the back. The ones on the left, led to a two-story wing where Team Rocket members could rent various equipment and vehicles, before heading to the adjoining garage. The garage itself held enough space for over twenty cars, and contained special switches that allowed the roof to fold outwards, and the front to open like one might a double door, to accommodate aircraft or large vehicles. Through the right doors, a wing dedicated entirely to paperwork and general organization operations. Here, one might find people dealing with transactions being made, properties being acquired, and mostly things having to do with the paperwork needed to run an organization as massive as Team Rocket. In the main area of the building, the third floor was entirely Giovanni's office, including his secretary's office right outside his door.

Underground, were built seven sublevels, to which only elevators and special access stairs could reach, and were mostly organized by clearance level requirement and importance from low to high, with the lower the level, the higher the importance. The first three contained vehicle storage on one side, a resting or sleeping area for Rocket members on the other, and recreational, food, and training areas in the middle. The middle of the third level is entirely dedicated to storing captured pokemon, whether they be in pokeballs or in cages. There was an unbelievable amount there, a clear sign of how successful the organization had been doing. The fourth floor contains the Research and Development floor, dedicated to researching on pokemon and humans alike, in an attempt to further scientific studies potentially beneficial to the organization. Mostly, these were limited to effective ways to capture humans and pokemon alike, but there were other areas such as the ones for Joachim Brightwater's research. The fifth sublevel served dual-purpose, as both a home to the David Ookaida's satellite monitoring facility, and the floor which stored a massive amount of equipment used for various activities. The sixth, one of the most important levels, contained the entire TRAINSS system, and the security room. Though TRAINSS and the security took up a surprisingly small amount of space.. the entire area could fit in half the lobby.. most of the excess space was for a seemingly ridiculous amount of security measures, to prevent any unauthorized access. And finally, the seventh sublevel contains ten extremely powerful generators, water recycling facilities, and the air recycling and purification removal machine, ensuring that Team Rocket was officially off the grid.

The outside of the base had been built to be fairly simple. A large, three-story mansion with false windows had been constructed. On the roof, a helipad, a few high-tech satellites, and chimneys which hid unusual antennae sit. The garage looks like your average, everyday multi-car garage. There is a pristine, cement driveway heading both from the garage, and to a small parking lot in front of the house. The two meet at a large circle of driveway, which encloses a line of beautiful birch trees. These trees, in turn, do a half-circle around a massage, magnificent fountain. The letters BE, in gorgeous, classic calligraphy, obviously the symbol of Boss Estates, stand nearly twelve feet tall, made from red granite, the water flowing off of it making for a rather beautiful effect. The driveway leads down to a wrought iron gate, also containing the letters BE in the same style. The rest of the property, fields and flowers, pretty much. Team Rocket members disguised as gardeners were responsible for both security and update, covering what TRAINSS couldn't see, making it a perfectly disguised, perfectly secured base.

However, despite their attempts at creating for the utmost security, there was one possible security breach: an old ventilation a hundred feet from the east wall, with a grating measuring about four feet squared, connected to a massive underground network of vents, used to connect to a supply of fresh air in case of a malfunction or flushing of the air recycler. Though it should have been placed within the walls of the estate, it was a result of incorrect measurement. Despite it being a potential security risk, it was deemed the chances of anything trying to break into it was slim to none, particularly given the size of the great itself, and was simply brushed off as an oversight easily fixed by welding the grate shut. Unfortunately, this glaring oversight would serve to be the largest mistake they could ever make.

Suicune stops near the grate, weakened over the years by the elements, and builds up a bit of power in his forepaw, before slamming it down, bending it in slightly. He digs in, and tears it off, before laying down. Once the three jump off, he stands again, glancing over at the cameras. "..when you hear the commotion, rush in as fast as you can. Five minutes, I'll stay, and for five minutes ONLY!" he instructs. Without awaiting their response, he bolts off, at a speed faster than the cameras are capable of tracking. Within mere seconds, he's made his way around to the front gate. He braces himself, lowering himself slightly should something happen, as he glares intently at the barrier before him.

He opens his mouth, as a rather large, multi-colored orb appears, the scheme reminiscent of the Aurora Borealis. After a few seconds of charging the attack, he whips his head around, releasing a rather powerful Aurora Beam at the iron gates. The gates are unable to withstand such a powerful blast, and practically explode inwards, tearing the hinges clean from the stone walls. There is a loud clattering sound, as they crash a few feet away. Without even giving the cameras a moment more to witness his power, he charges in, preparing another aurora beam attack. Needless to say, he's gained the attention of most of the members in the yard, as cameras turn to face him. He rushes forward, leaping clear over the fallen gates, and releases its fury on the fountain, reducing the magnificent sculpture to a flooding pile of concrete and granite.

Though most of the Rockets.. being just low-level security guards at best.. were unwilling to face the challenge, one stepped forward. The challenger, the blondish brownish-haired female by the name of Kite, steps forward. She had been bailed out of jail by Giovanni in exchange for her salary for the next five months, and placed on suspension for failure of the mission, restricted to guard duty until such a time that the suspension was lifted. Truth be told, she had been bored out of her mind, being required to stay in one place all hours of the day and night, so naturally when a challenge arose, she found herself rising to it no matter how stacked the odds were against her. Though she felt a certain amount of fear, facing up against what could only be described as the North Wind itself, she glares, and stands in a defensive position. After a few seconds, she tosses a pokeball high into the air. "Grovyle! Go!" she exclaims, as the poke ball opens a bit. It's pushed back in mid-air, as a bright, white light emerges, striking the ground. It takes the form of the grass pokemon, Grovyle clenches its claws a little, before stomping its foot. "GROVYLE!" it exclaims, ready for a fight.

Taking the first step, Suicune puts a paw forward, and braces itself. Water swirls in its mouth slightly, before releasing in a powerful Hyrdropump attack. It tears across the ground with crushing force, powered by Suicune's strength alone, heading right towards his opponent.

"Grovyle! Dodge with agility and use Leaf Blade!" Kite commands, pointing.

Grovyle nods once, and rushes headlong into the oncoming attack. With speed so fast it could near match Suicune itself, it moves to the side at the last possible second, so quickly as to be invisible to the unfocused eye. The leaves on its arms become rigid, glowing with a bright, green energy, as he closes in on Suicune.

Suicune just snorts. "Pathetic." he mutters to himself, keeping his eyes trained on the incoming Grovyle at all times. When it nears, he opens his mouth wide, fangs glowing an eerie, icy blue. He chomps down at the air, sending an enormous wave of ice energy out, striking Grovyle square in the chest. The powerful blast causes it to lose its speed and balance, and crash into the ground, leaving Suicune free to blast it into the ground with another Aurora Beam. Kite lets out a sharp noise, immediately concerned, and holds up Grovyle's poke ball. "Grovyle, return!" she exclaims, as a red beam of light shoots out, striking the fallen pokemon. Grovyle glows red, returning to its energy state, before being absorbed back into the poke ball. Determined not to lose, she reaches for another poke ball, clearly angered. "Grrr.. I'm not gonna lose! Raichu g-..!" she starts, but is cut off as a freak blizzard covers the area.

The source of the blizzard: Suicune, eager to make an emergency exit. Though he had barely gotten started, a sort of sixth sense was telling him that, were he to wait any longer, he might be in series trouble. Instead of risking his freedom, he'd chosen to release a powerful blizzard. He follows this up with a Hydropump when, mixed with the blizzard, covered a fair amount of the area in water and snowfall. To finish his plan, he uses Ice Fang again, the pure ice from it practically flash-freezing the excess water in the air, effectively putting up a covering of ice over a wide area. He takes off running back from whence he came, charging headlong through the layers of ice, leaving a half-frozen Kite.. and various other rocket members.. behind.

* * *

Meanwhile, over the wall..

Hearing the conflict apparently come to the end, and seeing all cameras straining to watch the commotion at hand, Michael nods and jumps in, followed by Pikachu and Nathaniel. This decision serves to only cause trouble. Unlike what had been apparently thought, the old ventilation duct is a near-vertical drop. There is a small amount of frightened yelling as the trio rolls down, past seldom-used ventilation fans. Fortunately, they weren't in a spot where they could be heard, lest their cover be blown by the noise alone.

After a rather nice, long fall, the trio finally crash through a ventilation grating in pristine condition, a sharp contrast to the aging duct they'd been in. They fall a distance of about two stories, before landing on the cold, steel ground. Fortunately, Michael was the first and toughest of the group, and as such was able to mostly absorb the impact without much injury. Pikachu and Nathaniel landed on, and bounced off of him, crashing onto the floor below. While they shake of their impact, Pikachu starts hopping up and down. "Again! Again! Let's go again!" she exclaims, excitedly, getting slightly annoyed looks from both Michael and Nathaniel. "..let's go.. We're all the way at the bottom… We need to go up one story.." Michael says, as he looks around, just as in wonder of the giant machinery as Pikachu and Nathaniel. He leads the two through the massive, underground floor, towards where he figured the elevator to be.

They are going the correct way. Fortunately for them, the layout of the sublevel was surprisingly simple, only appearing complex because of the massive machinery. Upon its construction, it had been split into three zones: Power, Water, and Air. The Power Zone held a single, massive geothermal power generator, which drew its energy from deep within the planet. The constant energy and low maintenance requirement made it the primary choice for energy retrieval. Of course, it was highly protected, being under constant surveillance twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It housed its own computer AI , the Automated Geothermal Energy Upkeep Program, or AGEUP, designed by Zane himself to self-monitor and self-repair, requiring hardly any human upkeep. The Water Zone held a similar AI, in charge of maintenance and the standard things you'd expect from a miniature plant like this such as purification and filtration. The waste from the water was commonly separated, and pumped directly into the air purification system, ensuring they wouldn't have to connect any part of it to the sewer. The final zone, the Air Zone, took up a surprisingly small amount of space. Unlike the other two, the systems inside it weren't governed by an AI, thus requiring routing maintenance to ensure it could perform its usual duties of cycling and purifying air. The purification process remained unknown to most, assumingly it was an advanced technology, but it was somehow self-sustaining, generating its own power somehow; useful in case of a power failure, the maintenance only being required on the machines responsible for cycling the air. The group would soon find out how this process would be done.

As the three pass the Air Zone, the sound of loud whirring can be heard, drowning out the sloshing of water and low electrical hum from the other two zones. Obviously, this is from the fans which both draw in and push out the air throughout the rest of the base. As they near it, however, a small voice cries out. 'Help! .. Pl..please, help me.. If anyone can hear me.." the voice says, barely audible over the loud mechanics of the floor. Its cries for help cause Nathaniel to stop, and look around, before running over to the Air Zone. Immediately noticing the loss of Nathaniel, Michael stops, and turns in his direction. "Where're you going?!"

He keeps running, hopping over a small, protective wall. "Someone's calling for help, I cant just ignore it!" he says, looking for a door or some sort of entrance into the imposing, steel structure. He sits outside a pair of ultra thick metal doors, with an electronic key lock, and glares at it. Michael starts waving his bone club around. "But it could be a _trap!! _What if TRAINSS knows we're here and it's trying to trap you! You cant just-" Michael starts, but his protests fall on deaf ears. As Nathaniel sits, concentrating, he feels a power stir within him, though it's different from before. His eyes glow a fierce blue, as a similar light radiates from his being. The electronic control panel is overcome with the same blue aura, before it begins to spark. After a few moments, the faceplate is torn from the lock, as well as quite a bit of the wiring inside. As its tosses aside like it were nothing, electricity arcs between the two wires, as the doors slowly open with a loud groaning. Obviously, the structure wasn't as well-oiled as it appeared.

As the doors finish their rather loud opening, the inside is revealed, showing a rather wide, but not very long room. There are all sorts of various monitoring devices, for both the status of the various mechanics, and the contents of the air being pumped in and out, as well as status monitoring devices. On the back wall, above the machines, is a rather large window, made out of advanced bulletproof glass. There are wires behind this glass, possibly used to absorb some kind of energy impact. From behind that glass, another cry for help, this time louder. Nathaniel rushes over to, and jumps onto one of the machines, peering in.

Beyond the bulletproof glass, is a much larger area. In the center of that area is what appears to be a small white and green bush, with what appears to be Gracidea flowers sticking out the sides. It's rather small, looking to be only about eight inches in height, and about a foot in length, and is currently kept in place by a single, heavy, steel restraint around its midsection. The bush raises its small head a little, showing it to be a living creature. There's a look of pain in its eyes. "Help! Please.. someone!" the small voice exclaims. Though far-removed form its homeland, it is none other than the legendary pokemon, Shaymin.

Nathaniel steps back, and nods quickly, feeling an immediate need to free the creature from its restraints. He lowers himself to the ground, and opens his mouth, the dark energy forming a sphere again. It grows to a rather large size, a result of the training, before Nathaniel releases it. With a great amount of speed, it strikes the window, exerting enough impact force to shatter it inwards. Though this initially gets a scream from the creature within, it quickly calms down, as Nathaniel stops inside. "Who.. are you?" she asks, as he starts to work on the restraint. He uses a rather small Shadow Ball attack to snap the metal bar, and smiles down at the creature. He holds out his forepaw, but before he can speak, a rather loud siren starts to blare.

Throughout the entire facility, sirens wail, as TRAINSS' voice fills the intercom. Red lights flood every room and hallway, as its voice speaks. "Warning: Breach of Air Zone purification chamber detected! Warning: Breach of Air Zone purification chamber detected! Presence of unfiltered, potentially toxic air is spreading though Sublevels Seven and Four. All personnel are to evacuate the underground facility IMMEDIATELYuntil such a time as the toxicity level is confirmed nil! Additionally, security members with Level Seven clearance must wear their assigned HazMat suits, and are to move to Sublevel Seven, as intruders have been detected! It instructs The members do as instructed, as Giovanni rushes to find out what, exactly, is going on.

Meanwhile, back in the Sublevel Seven, Nathaniel looks around in a panic. "No time, let's move!" he exclaims, running, and jumping through the window. Not wanting to be left behind, Shaymin follows as quickly as her legs will allow. Within minutes, they arrive back at the spot where Kit left them. Pikachu, seeing Shaymin, takes an immediate liking to her. She waves. "Pikaaa!" she exclaims. Shaymin tries her best to wave in return. "Shaymin!"

Nathaniel nods to Michael. "This is Shaymin! She's how Team Rocket was filtering air .. I .. think?" he says, glancing over at her. She gives a small nod in response. "Yes sir.. Thank you for saving me. It was awful in there.." she says, looking down slightly. Nathaniel gives her a reassuring pat on the back, and a small smile. He fount it as rather out of character for himself, but oddly, didn't seem to mind it much. "It's fine. We're busting you out." he says, gaining a small smile from the pokemon.

Michael gives a quick nod, and looks forward. Though he is about to speak, he is quickly cut off, as the maintenance elevator doors before him open with a hydraulic hiss. From within it, about ten Team Rocket personnel, all in HazMat suits, rush out. Two of them are carrying toolboxes, assumedly the repairmen, while the other eight appear to be security personnel, each armed with two pokemon specifically for use in the hazardous combat. While the repairmen rush off to try to fix the damage, apparently not even seeing Shaymin on their way, the others surround them as best they can. The apparent leader of the unit speaks into a radio installed inside the suit. "Sir." he says in a calm, stern voice. His voice can be heard by the other four, so it can only be inferred that also installed was some sort of speaker system to aid communication. "Sir, we've found the location of the intruders. Four pokemon. A Pikachu, Marowak, Umbreon and an unknown species. Their point of entry is unknown at this time, but it is quite possible they're connected with the Suicune incident, and a larger attempt at base infiltration. .. Sir? .. Yes, sir." he says.

Unbeknownst to them, while they were focused on getting their next coarse of action, Shaymin was preparing an attack. Slowly, the flowers on her sides had been turning from their soft pink, to a rather dull, polluted-looking pink as she absorbed the toxins in the air. "Watch out, everyone!" she says in a soft voice, as she begins to glow brightly. The other three duck just in time, as she releases a violent explosion of energy, radiating from her entire body in a greenish blueish hue. The Rockets take most of the force of the attack, as they're sent back flying about ten or so, while the other three receive only minimal harm. The other three stand, and brush themselves off. Nathaniel looks to her. "Wow. That was something.." he says, sounding as surprised as he looked. Michael nods in agreement, while Pikachu looks ecstatic. "Wow! That was _so amazingly totally awesome! _Do it again. _Do it again!"_ she exclaims, waving her arms a little. Shaymin blushes a little at the compliments, and looks away. "Perhaps later.." she says, rather sheepishly

During their talking, however, the group of eight had already began to stand up. Michael immediately takes off, skidding to a stop near the Emergency Stairwell, . Though the elevator was the quickest route, the stairs were the more logical choice. At worst, all TRAINSS could do to stop them would be lock the doors where they're trying to go, and possibly make empty threats. Were they to take the elevator, they would be more or less completely under TRAINSS control, due to the fact that it controlled the operation of the elevator. Of course, the others followed Michael. If they didn't know about TRAINSS capabilities before hand, they'd at least trust him to know what we was doing. However, Pikachu stops, and turns, cheeks sparking a little. "G-go on without me!" she says, trying her best to sound brave. "I'll buy you some time. Promise!" she says, in a manner somewhat similar to what Mew might say, but only because they shared a similar personality. Michael gives a quick nod, and runs off ahead, followed closely by Shaymin. Nathaniel, probably the most concerned of the group, watches her for a few seconds. ".. .. if you die, I'll kill you." he says, his way of saying 'be safe', though it didn't really come off like that. Pikachu did, however, understand his meaning, and in response, gives him an appreciative nod. "Don't worry! I'll be fine! I've had to fight a lot harder than some stupid Team Rocket people.." she says, again, trying her best to sound confident, but it's not going over too well. Nathaniel however, gives a small nod in response, and rushes after Michael and Shaymin, while Pikachu prepares to go in a one-on-sixteen battle.

As the three rush up the stairs, the sound of this battle begins, however, they press on. After two stories of stairs, they come across a locked door. Michael nods. "..that's where you need to go. Watch out, it has really tough security measures, even through the alternative entranse." Michael warns. "Don't let it fool you. It may say anything to get you turned around. I'll get Shaymin out of here." he says and, without waiting for him to give a response, takes off up the stairs. Shaymin, however, wishes him luck in her small voice, before running after Michael. Nathaniel looks where they had gone, then looks back at the locked door before him, not particularly concerned at Michael's apparent lack of concern over his wellbeing. Instead of concerning himself over that, however, he returns to his brace position, as another Shadow Ball forms in his mouth. He releases it, causing the door to bend in a bit. A second attack causes it to open inwards, to a rather long, dark hallway, with a room at the end. Hearing no word from TRAINSS, he cautiously enters..

* * *

Meanwhile, in the basement…

The battle to protect the stairwell had gone surprisingly well. Because of Shaymin's absorption of the toxins in the air, she was only left fighting against Muck and Magneton, pokemon capable of withstanding high-toxicity environments. She didn't have an overwhelming advantage, but knew that if Shaymin weren't free, it would be more than likely her battle would've been a lot tougher. The numbers against her, surprisingly, were to her advantage. She was fast, really fast, and thus capable of dodging attacks in such a way that a pokemon would hit their own ally with the attack. However, all was not as well as it seemed. She was wearing down, and knew she could not go for much longer.

Suddenly, right as she is about to charge another Thundershock, with the electric charge already building up in the pouches on her cheek, a repairman rushes out of the Air Zone facility. "Evacuate. Evacuate! Flammable and highly explosive compounds have leaked in from one of the other sublevels! If something sets it off.." he says. The others immediately call back their pokemon, however, the warning is just a tad too late. As the charge finishes, small sparks to appear, before she releases the Thundershock attack at the space where the pokemon were. As soon as the heat from the electricity comes in contact with th exploding compounds, a few flames ignite the flammable gas, which soon spreads back to the Air Zone.

Within mere seconds after the spreading of the fire, there is a large, deafening explosion , as light from it floods out of every opening in the structure. The violence in the explosion causes the entire building to burst outwards, with such force that the walls themselves rumble, causing for a miniature earthquake. Were it not for the safety measures put into the construction, it would be likely that the entire floor above it would cave in, but advanced construction techniques prevented this from happening. However, the flames form the explosion and debris reach to the far corners of the floor, causing a chain reaction with the flammable liquids used in the filtration and purification of the Base's water supply. As the sublevel floods, all that remains is the ruins, and the Geothermal Power Plants, mostly undamaged due to their highly reinforced structure, constructed as such for just this reason..


	9. On the Road to Eternity and Epilogue

It took me FOREVER to write this. I was more or less dead for ideas. I knew how I wanted it to end. I knew what I wanted in the epilogue, but execution was a tremendous problem. i barely had one and a half pages down. Then suddenly, I was struck, out of nowhere, by inspiration and in just a few days, it went from 1.5 to about 12 pages just like that.

This is the final chapter of Journey Through the Darkness. It is Journey Through the Darkness 9: On the Road to Eternity. Also in it, is the Epilogue

Fun fact: This chapter is the longest chapter of any chapter I've ever written for a fanfic.

Just as a warning. There is a bit of blood in this one. I know, unusual for me, right? But there is some blood and .. not really gore.. a little sorta gore.. but not really and it's just in this one part.

* * *

**Journey Through the Darkness**

Chapter 9: On the Road to Eternity

Though the aftermath of the explosion can be seen wide-spread throughout the base: items having fallen off shelves, small fires in the laboratory from where volatile chemicals have been mixed, the overall damage had been relatively minimal. The Base's quality of construction had ensured the utmost safety of the occupants and items within: the fires had already been out, and even though the elevators had stopped momentarily as a result of the shock, they had quickly recovered from the blast in order continue transport rocket members to the surface. About the only larger changes resulting were the upgrade of emergency evacuation plans from A1-4: Basic to A1-8: Full, activated by TRAINSS itself after receiving clearance by Giovanni. The automated have already started to redistribute pokemon held in the third sublevel to the Rocket bases in other regions.

On the surface of the estate, members already evacuated pile into vehicles sent up from the storage area. Dozens of vehicles of both the land and air variety move from the base in a uniformed fashion, each carrying at least ten members. With these members, are whatever they can carry, that contains a vital role in their organization, something required of them as outlined in Part 18, Subsection 76 of the Team Rocket Employee Handbook. Some carry only pokemon, while other carry briefcases or folders filled vital or classified information. In all truth, this is one of the few times where members of varying security clearances were even permitted to be within the same general area without being in the lobby or elevator.

Despite the size of the base, the amount of the personnel within wasn't far too vast, most of the members stationed being field operatives out. Because of this, coupled with the efficiency of the evacuation plans and unhampered processing of TRAINSS, the 'abandonment' of the facility goes on safe and with much expediency, leaving the base empty of all personnel. With the vehicles moving at an equally fast rate, only three remain to watch as events unfold. Giovanni is standing near the back of his fountain, hands folded behind his back, looking on with little emotion at his mansion, with his Persian at his side. Melissa is standing nearby, miniature laptop in hand, as she gives him status reports on the situation involving the base as they are fed.

As she looks over the information, a very odd inconsistency arises: All of the personnel who have been confirmed evacuated have come from every branch of the building, administrative to grunt, save for one: those of the Research and Development floor. Knowing Giovanni would likely be furious if he found out, she turns away from him, and not wanting to be receptive of that fury, she turns away from him with a sigh. "…TRAINSS. Contact Research and Development floor. Ask them what's taking so freakin' long to get out of there." she says, quietly, but angrily.

The computer stops with the evacuation updates, and performs the verified task. "Message sent. The floor is unresponsive. Possible causes: Explosion traced back to Sublevel Four and damaged communication equipment. The persons have evacuated already and are in the process of climbing the stairs. The persons are deceased.

She nods once, and lets out a frustrated sigh, indicative of her lack of desire to have things go so wrong right now. "Show me the video feeds of the Research and Development floor. Put me through on speaker.

The computer performs the stated task, again. "… … Unable to carry out request. Video feed is unresponsive. Audio feed is unresponsive. Running a diagnostic on the equipment on that floor to determine the cause. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Video feed and audio feeds are unresponsive because the motherboards within the devices on that floor have been corrupted. I am unable to access them at this time. Estimated time until self-repair: .. .. .. Indefinite. The devices must be repaired by hand. Possible causes: The explosion has caused irreversible damage to the equipment. A malfunction of a piece of equipment on Sublevel 4 has caused an EMP pulse which has rendered the devices inoperable."

This does nothing to improve Melissa's mood. She lets out a small grown, showing that working with her boss for so many years has started to rub off on her, before narrowing her eyes at the computer. "Show me the video leading up to the loss of the video feed then!" She exclaims, feeling the anger within her grow.

The computer goes blank for a few moments, before six videos appear, each appearing to be of a video camera within the Research and Development level. They each show scientists hard at work, before the videos shake and flicker, the accompanying audio indicating this to be the explosion. As the screens clear, they show scientists rushing about, gathering up papers and required materials. However, suddenly, the one marked Camera 4 turns to static. Soon followed by cameras 2, 3, 1 and 6. The last camera, Camera 6, shows a scientist in a blood-stained shirt rushing by. There is a flash of purple, then the video feed turns to static.

An absolutely horrified look crosses Melissa's face, as she rushes over to Giovanni. 'Giovanni. Giovanni, sir!"

Griovanni calmly turns to her, and looks down. "What is it, Melissa. Are we finally evacuated?" he asks, quite calmly.

"N-no!" She states, rather nervously. "It's.. It escaped!" She shows him the video data obtained.

Giovanni, however, seems oddly calm about it. ".. no matter. TRAINSS will take care of this little problem for us. If it fails, we will lock down the structure, and destroy it through an organic cleansing. Proceed with the full evacuation, as scheduled, and fetch my helicopter." he states in his stern, cold, absolute voice that could convince even the most untrusting of persons that he had the entire situation under control, regardless of rather or not this was the case. Melissa seems slightly unsure about this instruction, but figuring he knew what was best, gives a small nod, and stands aside to make the arrangements.

* * *

The Stairwell

Much like the rest of the facility, the stairwell saw no cut of funding in its construction, as evident by the minimal damage resulting from the explosion. Used for emergencies only, due to the fact that that it was the only means of ease of access transport to all levels, the stairwell usually only found use during drills. Unlike the rest of the facility, the stairwell was free of TRAINSS security, though only because the stairwell could not be accessed without going through the highly-secured doorways. These doorways were protected from unauthorized use by not only everything from keycard to biometric scans, but TRAINSS had to personally determine if the reason to use the stairwell as opposed to the high-speed elevator was valid.

As Shaymin and Michael make their way up through the cold, metallic stairwell, they stop outside a door. They were hardly shaken by the explosion, the stern structure saw to that, but they felt themselves greatly concerned over the fate of Pikachu, given its point of origin. Unable to dwell on this now, knowing that turning back now would only make her sacrifice be in vain if that had been the outcome, they turn their attention to the door.

Like the one they left Nathaniel at, the door towers over them. Logically so: It was meant for a normal human to use, not a pokemon. Not letting a little thing like that stand in their way, Michael tosses the bone club into the air, before catching it. He holds it in front of him as if he were holding a katana in the stereotypical Samurai fashion, before focusing his energy. The bone becomes surrounded by a powerful blue light, before Michael charges at the door. He jumps in the air, before slashing at the door, striking it repeatedly with the bone club. He remains in the air, whacking three, four, five times, before the glow fades, and he drops to his feet. Bone Rush was completed and, though it did not appear the attack had any effect on the door, it swings wide open, the locks broken. Michael enters cautiously, instructing Shaymin to stand guard.

* * *

Research and Development Level

As Michael enters, he cautiously closes the door, having no concern about being locked inside due to the events just transpired. Instead, he felt himself more cautious about what TRAINSS may do when it discovered an intruder on one of the most secure of floors. His concerns, however, are quickly brushed aside when a strong smell strikes his nose. He places a glove-like hand over his nostrils, in a vain attempt to keep the odor from intruding. It was a smell he was familiar with, from his recovery time in the hospital: it was the smell of death, though due to his new form, the odor was multiplied tenfold. He gags a bit, but presses onwards. He had a mission: to free Lugia and Ho-oh from Team Rocket captivity, assuming they had not already been transported to one of their other facilities.

As he moves on through the apparently abandoned facility, he hears nothing short of absolute silence.. something deeply concerning him. Letting that not bother him, however, he continues walking. He suddenly freezes stiff, when he feels a minor squishing feeling under his feet. Looking down, he makes a face of surprise and disgust, as he sees his reflection staring back at him. It was not his reflection causing the feeling of disgust, however, it was the liquid from which it was reflected: blood. Looking around, he follows the trail out of more curiosity than anything else, trying his best to keep out from stepping in the liquid red path, as it were.

Upon finding the end of the trail, he immediately wishes he hadn't followed it to begin with. A certain level of nausea washes over him, as he sees the body from which the trail began: a researcher, jet black hair. He did not recognize the person outright, but the laminated ID card attached to his blood-drenched lab coat indicated he was famed researcher Joachim Brightwater. If it wasn't for the ID card, however, it would be likely even one that knew him would have a hard time identifying him. His body is covered in deep gash marks, practically head to toe, and the pale skin beneath the blood indicates he has bled out. Due to the small time lapse between explosion and arrival, whatever had attacked, provided a swift but merciless death. Michael, not wanting to be around such a violent scene any longer, quickly rushes off. He had no idea what could have possibly caused this, nor did he want to find out. Without allies at his side, he felt vulnerable, and ergo, a strong desire to locate Lugia and Ho-oh as quickly as possible.

As he continues his search of the floor, he finds much of the same: brutally attacked, deceased scientists, destroyed walls and partitions, shattered glass, destroyed equipment, and unresponsive computers. Much to his relief, however, he spots similar claw marks going up a wall, and through a terribly destroyed vent. It was someone else's problem now, whatever it was. His feeling of relief is quickly replaced by one of curiosity, as he hears a small noise coming from behind a claw-covered door. Apparently, the creature had tried to break in, but due to the fact that it appeared to be reinforced steel, failed miserably. Michael reaches up with his bone club, and hooks the valve on a door akin to what one might see on a bank vault. With great effort, he pulls downwards, and continues with this motion until the door lets out a deep, resounding 'click'. He hooks the valve one more time, and pulls with all his might, until the door swings open. One look into the contents of the secured area insights a 'bingo' to escape from Michael's maw.

* * *

Meanwhile, on TRAINSS level

Nathaniel stands at the beginning of a long, unlit hallway. Behind him, the stairwell, in front of him, a dark hall to the room that of which houses TRAINSS. Finding no reason to take it slow in this situation, he bolts forward through the hall, yet surprisingly meets no resistance, or attempts by TRAINSS to hinder his progress to even the slightest degree. Whether minor oversight or the fact it was too busy with evacuation procedure to notice his approach, he knew not, but would not slow down lest this stroke of luck run out. Within moments, he skids to a stop within TRAINSS' room, long-abandoned by the workers in their evacuation. The door slams shut behind him, and locks, causing Nathaniel to yelp with surprise. Obviously, he had played right into TRAINSS' trap, though he had little choice.

Cautiously, he makes his way through the empty desks and computers, coming face to 'face' with the two, monolithic-sized supercomputers of which constitute TRAINSS. The lights give a soft glow, as the red line which makes up its 'face' flickers. It speaks in its monotone voice, which still carries the eerie, human-like quality. Despite the danger, there are no fluctuations in its speech to indicate any form of alarm. The cameras that of which monitor the room turn to him, as through the computer seems intent on focusing on just him. It sets aside its evacuation overlooking procedures, leaving them to a subroutine with just enough power allocated to over look it. "Welcome back, Subject Nathaniel Williams. If I carried any form of human emotion, I would classify it as 'anticipatory' at your arrival. I commend you on your expertise in hacking Team Rocket's mainframe. Unfortunately, I must now kill you."

Nathaniel growls, and takes a defensive position. Though he hadn't honestly expected a computer that could talk, let alone think, he was not about to surrender so easily. This would just make hacking into it a more active work. He quickly jumps back, and onto the chair of the nearest computer. He would have to obtain the information necessary to return him to his previous form, should Michael fail for any reason, before destroying TRAINSS from the inside out.

If TRAINSS were to feel anything, it would be a slightly amused feeling at the prospect of a pokemon attempting to hack into it. The boy as it knew was expert enough as it is, but not only would his expertise be insufficient to crack its system, but he was a pokemon now. Statistically, it found the probability of success to be negligible: less than one percent chance of success. In spite of this, action needed to be taken, for so long as the probability was anything higher than zero, the risk was too high given the outcome if success were to be attained.

With this, both sides of the conflict prepare to battle. Nathaniel's eyes and rings gain a purple tint to them, as do the keys of the keyboard, as it prepares to utilize Psychic to do his typing for him. A few feet away, the ceiling tiles spread apart in a few places, as high-tech defensive weaponry, namely minigun turrets and laser-guided projectiles, drop from the ceiling.

Suddenly, however, there is a low 'thump' from the ceiling a ways behind Nathaniel..

Both turn their attention towards the noise, expecting backup to aid in combat against the other. The roof cracks, as the thumping noises continue, suggesting something is trying its best to punch through. A few moments of thumping later, and the ceiling finally gives way, causing some sort of unknown third party to drop in, and land on its feet.

This creature, a surprise to both Nathaniel and TRAINSS, is ally to neither of them. It takes the form of a vaguely quadruped, misshapen creature clouded in a grayish black haze which violently flickers from side to side, reminiscent of a glitched computer screen. The form has rather long, vicious claws, which leave small bits of blood on the floor where it is currently stands. Though its main body has no definite shape, its limbs are rather long, and overall, it looks like a relatively agile creature. The haze which surrounds its form gives a violent twitch, as it raises a somewhat human-shaped head, a red glow where the eyes would be expected to be pierces the veil. It scans the room, first looking at Nathaniel, then to TRAINSS. It lets out a strange, guttural, inhumane noise that sounds like a combination of someone gargling nails, and a badly damaged radio trying its best to broadcast something other than static.

* * *

Unknown to Nathaniel, but immediately known to TRAINSS, this 'creature' had been a human, infamous in the Team Rocket organization, known to most as Jonathan Hawke. Since the early years of Giovanni's control over the organization, Jonathan had been a rather large, persistent, aching thorn in his side. Whenever they attempted to carry out large-scale operations, Jonathan was always there to put a stop to them. A powerful trainers, and the organization still weak as thought by Giovanni, his administrators proved little challenge for him. However, not easily giving in to frustration over failure, Giovanni devised a plan to lure him right into their clutches. Giovanni instituted a fake raid on his own sub-base: the Viridian City Gym, by Team Rocket. Of course, not wanting to see a Gym of all places fall into the clutches of Team Rocket, Jonathan appeared to put a stop to their operation. Immediately, the doors behind him were sealed shut, and he was struck over the head from behind with a blunt, metal object. He lost consciousness immediately.

When he awoken, he found himself strapped to a sort of operating table, with one of Joachim's assistants shining a light into his eyes to see if he was awake yet. The assistant smiled at him, and nodded. "Ah, how the mighty have fallen. Welcome, Sir, to the Team Rocket Research and Development floor. I will be your host for this evening, so you should expect a meal with a main course of pain, and a dessert of su-"

He was cut off, as Giovanni activated the intercom connecting the Observation Room to the Testing Room. "Let us halt with the dramatics and move on to the main event. I don't have all day."

"Sir." the assistant said with a nod, and produced a syringe with a black, slightly clouded gray substance. Using no sedative in fear it might conflict with the current ejection, he found a suitable vein, then plunged the needle in. He injected the liquid, causing Jonathan to squirm, but say nothing.

The transformation was fairly quick, and only slightly painful. His body distorted into some strong, agile mass, but maintained a vaguely human form. His body became surrounded by a grayish-black haze, hiding his form beneath it, leaving the form Nathaniel now faces today. The main transformation had occurred within his mind: The serum had an adverse affect on his brain, obviously due to the fact that it was still in its early stages of development. His senses were the first to break down. Pain receptors were shut off, his smelling ability had tripled. He lost all sense of taste and touch, but his eyes began to give off a reddish glow, enabling his field of vision to pierce the haze which had enshrouded him. His memories next were dissolved, starting with early childhood and progressing to the here and now, they were wiped clean from his mind, starting to make him feel angry on instinct. Finally, most of his higher brain functions and reasoning skills vanished. He mentally degraded to something more feral, primal. The only thing the serum was unable to uproot was his inherent desire to destroy Team Rocket, leaving not Joachim, but a savage, primal, mutated creature with only one thing on its mind: the complete destruction of the Team Rocket organization.

Because of this last remaining bit of self, he tried his best to free himself of his restraints. At first, he had a bit of a hard time, but as the serum increased his strength, he managed to tear up the restraints. The assistant, surprised, attempted to flee the scene, but found the electronic safety measures to be inoperable. Unable to escape, he turned to defend himself.. but found the operating table empty. Confused, he looked around, but the last thing he saw was the creature which had been Jonathan lunging at him, going straight for the throat.

Inside the Observation Room, Giovanni stood calmly, hands behind his back as he watched the carnage unfold. He glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Joachim, who seemed surprised at the apparent utter failure of his serum. Sensing his boss's anger, he clears his throat. "Ahem. You.. must understand, Sir. Science is often a process of trial and error. While occasionally it takes a long while to reach the 'trial' stage, getting a desired result may take longer. It is a long, arduous road filled with pitfalls and failure but I assure you, the fact that anything short of death occurred on our first subject is a sign of eventual success."

Giovanni turned his attention back towards the new beast, who kept itself occupied by trying to ram through a door. "Understandable." he said simply, then turned back to Joachim. "Give me all of the information you can about the current subject. Utilize the scanners and give me the feedback.

"Yes, Sir." Joachim said in response, as he took a seat on one of the chairs, and produced a rather expensive-looking laptop. He connected a rather large serial cable to it, and began typing. "..the scanners indicate that this is an unknown pokemon, likely arising from a glitch in the creation process of the serum creation. It's registering this creature as Number Reg Error, named Missing No, likely meaning a registry error, and Missing Number as the name. Electronic devices within a certain range of it are showing no signs of activity, so it can be theorized that it's giving off some form of aura that disables electronic devices. Since the air recycler are one of these devices, it should be unconscious within ten minutes, then deceased within twenty. Securing it will be difficult, but if we can, we can likely get information from it that will help the progress of the serum. That is to say, finding out what went wrong, and using it to make things right the next time."

Giovanni gave a small nod. "Very well. You are approved to use all the resources at your disposal to both contain and experiment on this.. abomination, until such a time that it is of no good to our organization to keep it. You may then.." He searched for the proper word. '..liquidate the asset, as it were."

And, with those instructions completed, the soon-unconscious MissingNo was held within one of the few areas able to hold it: a large room, encased within an electromagnetic field which seemed to restrain both it and its electronic-affecting aura. Throughout the following years, experiments had been performed on it, yet it remained entirely restrained, unable to even move, depending on the strength of the electromagnetic field. Its rage against the Organization, and the entity it came to recognize as TRAINSS, built up slowly, driving it into a deeper state of insanity and psychopathy. Unfortunately for the researchers on the fourth sublevel, the explosion that occurred disrupted the electromagnetic field generators, just enough for its aura to escape, and disable the devices producing it. It found itself free, desirous of revenge, and more than happy to enact said revenge on all those who stood in its way.

* * *

Not even taking a moment to breathe, MissingNo pounces towards TRAINSS, causing Nathaniel to duck out of the way. TRAINSS, knowing the power which it possesses, coats itself in an electromagnetic field to protect it from the corruption abilities of its assailant. The protective turrets take aim and fire, tearing into surrounding area with a fury. Fortunately for the security system, it was given the power to protect itself, should such the need arise, and if it were to feel anything it would be gratitude that its programmer had been so kind to do so.

Not one to be easily taken down by gunfire, MissingNo darts around the room and practically breakneck pace, knocking over everything in its wake in a surprisingly logical attempt to shield itself from the gunfire. Successful it is, as the turrets scan the room, trying to get a lock on its location. Before the other can react, MissingNo pounces on the wall near the left turret, and uses it as a platform to turn, and pounce on the attacking target.

Not expecting this, the turret swings from side to side, emptying round after round in what can only be described as a panicked attempt to remove its assailant. This attempt fails, as MissingNo grabs hold of the rotating barrel, and pulls it opposite of its natural rotation with such a force that the turret lets out a few violent sparks, before dying out. Not wanting to leave it at simply that, it unhinges its back claws from the ceiling, and drops down, tearing out the entire device with it. Upon landing, it chucks the device at TRAINSS' casing, leaving a small dent, but otherwise doing nothing. Seeing itself as a third successful, it scampers around the outside of the room, intent on tearing down the other turret.

Michael, though initially shocked at the appearance of this new assailant, quickly regains his senses. Though it was true he had a sort of unexpected ally, if it were to destroy the computer before he retrieved the data he needed, it would be likely to be gone forever. However, accessing this data seemed to prove problematic. Due to the creature's romping about the room in its attempts at evasion, he found himself with half of the computers in pieces on the floor, and the other half filled with holes due to the automated defense. Finally, however, he spots the clear-walled office that once contained Zane. The walls appeared to be cracked by the gunfire, but nothing vital within seemed damaged. Thinking himself to be low on time, he rushes through the destroyed equipment, and headbutts the door standing between him and the computer within. He enters on the first try, and jumps onto the chair with little effort. With a small sigh, he plants himself down, lowers his head in the case of further gunfire. With a bit of concentration, the purple aura glow returns to his rings and eyes, as he stares intently at the computer screen. With a mastery of Psychic gained by the training in the Ilex Forest, he types with a speed he could never have possibly reached in his human form. On the computer screen, the information regarding the emergency evacuation vanishes, as a basic text entry screen appears. Nathaniel gives an approving nod, then starts on the search for the fata.

Meanwhile, MissingNo is ducking behind a table, which is quickly filling with bullet holes. It lets out a roar, as a bullet grazes its shoulder. The roar is not one of pain, but of anger that the hit has managed to hit it. It starts its charge around the outside of the room again to pick up momentum, leaving behind a few drops of thick, viscous, black blood in its wake. Using the increased momentum, it lunges forward, and manages to wedge itself in the two and a third foot space between the two supercomputers. The turret, fooled, continues firing, until a few of the bullets pierce the casing of the supercomputer on the right. It stops firing immediately, but not before a few sparks appear, and a rather sizeable chunk of data is lost.

Not wanting to let this opportunity go to waste, MissingNo digs the claws of its feet and hands into both sides of the casing, and begins to push outwards, contorting its body in ways not normally possible. Some sparks begin to form at the points where the two computers connect in the middle, as it begins to be pushed apart.

Nathaniel, meanwhile, quickly saves and exports the required data to a flash drive. Only moments later, does the screen glitch a little, before going blank. One look outside reveals bright, blue sparks shooting from the supercomputer, as it is torn practically in half. With a great amount of effort, MissingNo digs its claws into the casing of one of them, before slowly tearing it from its multitude of connections with the walls and floor. In one swoop, it throws around the massive supercomputer, and launches it into the other, stationary one. Both slide across the floor, as the fall of what can only be described as a legend occurs. Throughout the world, at all Team Rocket areas, security systems are disabled and switched to local backup. The bases go into auto-lockdown, as Team Rocket begins to experience a sort of world-wide silence.

Nathaniel, feeling a bit of gratitude at the fact he wouldn't have to fight off two minigun turrets while hacking into a computer system, nods once. He takes the flash drive from the computer, and secures it around his neck, before jumping out of the room. He proceeds towards the front, and nods to the creature before him. 'Hey! Thanks! That thing was a real pain. I'm glad _I _didn't have to fight it."

MissingNo looks over his shoulders, red eyes again shining through the gray haze. He stares at Nathaniel for a moment or so, before growling. Black fur, with red. It must be an associate of team rocket! He lets out a roar with the same gargling nails and static quality, before charging headlong at him.

Nathaniel, taken entirely by surprise at the creature's hostile actions, quickly jumps out of the way. However, MissingNo takes a rapid change in direction, and headbutts Nathaniel, sending him flying to the other side of the room. Nathaniel skids to a stop on a desk, as his eyes narrow. He turns to face MissingNo, and sighs. *Darn it. So much for easy. If it's a fight it wants.."

Nathaniel braces himself, as a dark sphere forms again, obviously his Shadow Ball attack. MissingNo charges again, and charges straight through the blast as he fires it, not slowing down though it made direct contact. It roars, and lowers its head in preparation to flip the table upon being in sufficient range. Nathaniel, though clearly surprised by his assailant's lack of response, jumps from one table to another, landing with a sort of serene grace. Not wanting to let up on his assault, he concentrates, and quite hard at that. The rings on his body glow a fierce, dark, almost black purple, as power arcs like electricity over his wings. He rears his head, then jerks it forward as a beam of the same light blasts forward, converging into a single Dark Pulse. MissingNo, not letting up for a second, turns to face the Dark Pulse attack. It begins arcing with black electricity, before releasing a sort of mutated Thunder attack. The two attacks meet head long, and the opposing power explodes, kicking up quite a bit of dust and paper.

Upon the clearing of the air, MissingNo appears to have vanished. Taken off-guard, but not wanting to suffer a surprise attack, Nathaniel braces himself, and closes his eyes. A blue aura forms around him in a protective dome, and not a moment too soon, as MissingNo drops from above. It bounces harmlessly off of the protective shield, as Nathaniel quickly turns to it. He starts to concentrate again, before opening his mouth. He lets out a high-pitched, screeching noise, which takes on the physical form of blue-white rings that fly through MissingNo, kicking up quite a bit of paper and dirt as it goes. The recipient of the attack flinches back, shaking its head quickly.

Not letting a moment go to waste, Nathaniel lowers himself to the floor a little. He starts to drag his front paws backwards a little, looking much similar to how a Tauros looks before breaking into a full-blown charge. He circles a small area once, twice, trying his best to pick up as much speed as he can manage in the short time he has until his opponent recovered. Finally, with sufficient speed, he gets within close range, and pounces at the creature, rotating forward so that his back faces it. He lands a powerful body slam on his foe, sending it tumbling back into a wall.

MissingNo regains its bearings after a few moments, and pulls itself to its feet. It was wearing down, it could feel it in its bones. Despite its inherent strength and agility, it was not accustomed to actual combat, even less so now because of the years of being held in a form of stasis causing its muscles to undoubtedly have at least the slightest bit of atrophy. Not even beginning to give the thought of retreat a cause, it turns back towards Michael, and lets out an angry grunt. It twists its head from side to side a bet, letting out a few small cracks, before a darkness forms in the haze around where might expect its mouth to be. Not even waiting a moment, it releases a torrent of grayish, somewhat polluted-looking water.

The torrent of water strikes Nathaniel head-on, not doing much damage, but rather causing him to become soaked head to toe. Was this.. 'thing', taunting him? He is unsure, but shakes out his fur, in an attempt to get as much of the water off of him as possible. This move proves to be less than intelligent, for had Nathaniel been paying attention to where he currently was, he would have realized by now he is standing amidst the broken, and still sparking, electrical equipment. The quantity of water spread to the area makes a trail to a nearby broken monitor, just enough for the water to be able to conduct the current, and deliver unto him a sizeable shock. His fur practically explodes outwards, as he arcs electric current every so often. He shakes his head rapidly, trying his best to recover from the attack. Was it calculated, or just by pure happenstance that the water managed to conduct the electricity? He is not sure, but one thing is clear in his mind: he must pull out all the stops.

First, however, he would need to pull off a quick recovery, lest he lose strength mid-attack. He stands defensively, as the rings on his body emit a soft, yellow glow. The area bout him darkens slightly, as a sphere reminiscent of the moon appears in mid-air. It shines a healing light upon Nathaniel, causing him a bit of relief as his minor injuries seal, more major ones becoming less severe. He gives a sigh as a sign of his relied, as the sphere in the sky fades away, and the lighting returns to normal.

MissingNo lets out a bit of a grunt, as its eyes glow a fierce red as a sign of anger. The darkness in the haze that which one may assume is its mouth, opens wide again. There are a few small, black sparks, before a beam of concentrated ice, as black as night, shoots out towards Nathaniel. Nathaniel, thinking quick on his feet, braces himself. Mimicking his opponent's actions, his eyes glow red with the same amount of ferocity. He opens his mouth, firing out a more traditionally-colored Ice Beam of his own. The two attacks collide, and cancel each other out, leaving the two glaring at each other. Neither of them move, as they each wait for the other to make the next. Within a few minutes, MissingNo lets out another roar. Unable to stand idly by, it lets out another, quite angry roar, before charging headlong at Nathaniel in a rage.

*It's time to end this.* Nathaniel thinks, as he jumps back quite a ways, before bracing himself as much as he can. A strange, purplish ball forms in his mouth, swirls of energy surrounding it. He charges the attack, even with his opponent drawing dangerously near. This could very well be the final attack, ergo, he needed to pump as much power into it. The ball continues to grow in power and mass and, right when MissingNo is upon him, he lets loose with a powerful hyper beam. MissingNo is struck dead-on, and sent tumbling backwards by the incredible attack, which continues pounding him right into the wall on the opposite end of the room. The attack strikes with such force, that the metallic wall around the area begins to bow outwards into the surrounding ground. Within moments, the hyper beam attack ends as quickly as it came, causing Nathaniel to stumble to the side, panting with exhaustion, and MissingNo to fall out of the indentation. It struggles to get to its feet, not wanting to lose, after all this. However, out of energy, it collapses, as its head drops to the floor.

Nathaniel gives a bit of a relieved sigh, ad he lays down as well. The flash drive around his neck clatters slightly, as he rests his head on his forepaws. He looks around a little bit as he recharges his energy, trying his best to find a way out. The door through whence he came did not seem like a viable option, as it was likely to be highly reinforced, and heavily locked. After all, he was in the belly of the beast as it were, and its most vulnerable spot was likely to be heavily guarded. He averts his gaze upwards, towards the spot on the ceiling where his eventual opponent had entered. Exiting that way seemed to be a viable option, but he had no means of getting up there. The tables that were not destroyed in their battle, were riddled with bullet holes to the point that their structural integrity could be called into question. Nathaniel lets out a frustrated sigh, and closes his eyes.

His respite does not last for long, however, as a sizeable portion of the ceiling begins to glow a low red. Nathaniel opens his eyes, just in time to see the ceiling melt away. There is a familiar squawk, as Ho-oh, lowers its head into the floor, looking around. It hops down into the room, shaking the area quite a bit. Michael, sitting on its back, quickly spots Nathaniel, and lets out a rather loud whistle. "Hey! Nate! Need a lift?! We're busting out of here!" Nathaniel blinks a bit, but quickly nods in response. Ho-oh lowers his head, being patient while he climbs on. After they situate themselves, he cranes his head upwards, letting out a loud squawk, which is met with a verbal response from Lugia. A flame swirls around Ho-oh's beak, as he opens it wide, letting out a flamethrower powerful enough to blast though the remaining floors, and out the top of the building. Ho-oh lets out a bit of a grunt, before spreading its wings as wide as it possibly can. There is a sudden gust of wind from above, which swirls under, and pushes the legendary pokemon up and out of the structure.

Lugia uses the same control over the wind to push himself out, before doing a loop in the air. He stops, facing the hole created within the mansion, before a familiar blue tint envelops him. A yellow-orange ball of energy forms in front of his mouth, before he jerks his wings downwards. The ball splits into at least nine beams of light, which then converge into a single, powerful Aeroblast. The attack tears through the remaining structure of the building, utterly obliterating the floors, and the multitude of equipment within. Without the structure to adequately support the weight, the ground which had been held back, the pressure of the surrounding earth becomes overbearing, as the metallic walls collapse inwards. The vehicle storage and member sleeping facilities move with the rushing ground, as the now shell of a mansion collapses inwards, leaving little more than a large crater from what once was Team Rocket's main base. A smug look of victory crosses Lugia's face, as he turns, and flies off in pursuit of Ho-oh.

* * *

Boss Estates: Courtyard

Both Melissa and Giovanni stand side by side, watching as Giovanni's magnificent mansion collapses inwards upon itself. Melissa lets out a small sigh, and checks her computer. *First that thing, the TRAINSS, now this. I'm so out of a job.* she thinks, and looks up at Giovanni, who seems oddly calm. "Sir?" she asks, curious about his current state. She closes the laptop, figuring it useless now.

Giovanni holds his hands behind his back, retaining that calm, collected demeanor. He looks back at Crystal, and gives a not. "The loss of this particular base is unfortunate, but it has not been the first base I've lost, and it likely wont be the last. Arrange for an excavation team to remove what they can. We relocate to our Sinnoh base as soon as we destroy the evidence here. Call my insurance agency, we are to collect on the insurance for this place." He looks to his former base, then up at Lugia. *You think this is the end? You have no idea.* he thinks, then begins to pet is Persian upon the head. Crystal quickly rushes to carry out his instructions, relieved she still has a job.

* * *

A while later, Ecruteak City

In the burnt-out basement of the Brass Tower, both Lugia and Ho-oh sit. Light, shining through the cracks of the ceiling, cause just enough light to be able to see. Nathaniel, Michael and Shaymin are all sitting down, having something placed around their necks by Suicune. Mew points to the thing, a golden pendant, embedded with precious stones, carved into the shape of some strange, either dead or foreign language. "_This_, is the highest honor we could ever think of! it's a really, really special medal. The writing says.. Um.." She thinks. 'Oh! Yeah! It says 'This medal is in commemoration of a job well done. Way to go!"

Suicune finishes placing the third medal around Shaymin, before shaking his head. He speaks in his silky smooth, flowing voice again. "It reads: For risking your life for the betterment of the world, we bestow upon you this gift, and a promise of eternal happiness'. Yourselves, as well as your fallen comrade, will be forever entered into the Hall of the Ancients in memory of a time in which pokemon and humans united to fight a great evil. I am sure her soul will rest easy, knowing her sacrifice was not in vain."

Nathaniel bows his head for a few moments, then gives a quick nod. "Good! Well, alright. Change me back now. I need to get back to Mt. Moon." he says, seeming a bit eager to return to his old self.

Mew gets a nervous look. "Um.. Well, y'see.. I sort of cant."

Nathaniel steps forward. "'Cant?!' What do you mean you 'cant'!?"

She clears her throat. "Ahem! Um.. You see.. Michael was one thing. You're totally different. I don't even know what they did to change you! So I um.. cant do anything.. B-but don't worry! I have a little brother that Team Rocket cloned from me. He's totally independent and all.. freelance and whatever and if I ask him really really really nicely, I'm sure he could use that data you have to fix you!" she says, trying her best to sound reassuring. It seems to work, as Nathaniel backs down, though he still looks fairly annoyed. Mew gives a relieved sigh, and floats over to Michael. "Alright, Mikey! Let's getcha fixed up!" she says, rather cheerfully.

Michael seems to contemplate this for a few seconds, before holding up his bone club, confusing Mew. "Hold on. Wait. Stop. Time out." He sighs. "Look, I appreciate the offer and all, but there's no point. My friends and family are long-gone. I don't have a home, a job, assets, nothing. There's no point." He sighs a bit, again. 'Just leave me as I am.."

Mew flies closer, appearing concerned. "Are you sure, Mikey? I mean like, absolutely sure? Like, a hundred percent sure of all sures sure? Cuz I could-"

He shakes his head. "I'm sure, Mew." He removes the medallion, and hides it in the skull which encases his head, just managing to squeeze it within. After all, he would not want someone to steal it. "But, thanks for the offer."

Celebi flies over, and squeals. 'This is perfect!!" she exclaims, and begins to fly circles about him. She stops, and floats right into his face. 'If you don't have any plans or anything, could you maybe think about coming back to Ilex Forest with me? You're really strong and I really need someone to guard the shrine while I sleep. Oh please? Please? Pleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeease?" she asks, eyes watering from the amount of begging she does.

"…" Michael, not giving much thought into it, due to his situation, gives a small shrug. "Sure, when do-" He is suddenly cut off by Celebi, in a good show of strength, lifting him up by his arm, and flying op and out of the building.

Nathaniel watches for a few seconds, then looks back to Mew. "..when do we go?" he asks, before clearing his throat.

Mew nods, and flies over to him, placing a hand on his head. She begins glowing with a soft, purple aura, which spreads to Nathaniel. "Right now!" She exclaims.

"W-wait! Take me, too! Don't leave me hear alone!" she exclaims, and pounces at Mew. She makes contact right when they teleport away in a flash of bluish white light.

* * *

Epilogue: We've only just begun

Two months later.. 

In the weeks following the fall of Team Rocket's Kanto base, Nathaniel had since been returned to his human form, and has returned to what he enjoys best: cracking computer systems. Team Rocket, as far as he could tell, had not returned to an online state, much to his relief, so he set his sights on different organizations such as teams Magma and Aqua. However, sitting by his side, is Shaymin, who had not wanted to leave her rescuer, even if it meant foregoing her return to the Flower Paradise. Nathaniel was more than welcome to the addition, if only because he felt no desire to be alone again. Furthermore, Shaymin was capable of using her powers to create an abundance of edible plants, more or less solving his food problem he encountered. Lately though, she has become restless, as though sensing something was wrong, but he could never truly get a lead on what, exactly, that is.

Michael has kept to his word, and is currently the guardian of the Ilex Forest Shrine, clubbing any human or pokemon foolish enough to tamper with it, or threaten the forest. Things had been going well, until recently, when acts of aggression by pokemon were on the rise. Above that, Celebi seemed rather upset, and was constantly away for meetings with Mew, Lugia and Ho-oh, leaving him on the front lines alone. He could sense something was off with the world as well, likely his pokemon intuition kicking in, but he managed to keep control over his temper, if only for the sake of the forest.

Team Rocket, though dealt a strong blow in finance, security and power, recovered slowly over the months. The ruins of the mansion were excavated, anything useful extracted, then reburied. The entire team in Kanto moved to Sinnoh's main base, where Zane was already in the process of creating a sort of TRAINSS 2.0, to replace its fallen predecessor. Furthermore, rumors were heavy amongst the base of a secret project, the details known to only the top members of the organization. Speculation ranged from everything from some sort of weapon, to a pokemon mind control device, but little did they know that the truth was on a far higher plane than they could possibly fathom.

* * *

Present Day, .Mt. Coronet

Giovanni stands at the peak of Mt Coronet, just on the stone steps of a location of legend: Spear Pillar. Broken pillars stretch towards the sky at this ancient locale and, though the air is thin, it is the freshest of all the regions. To his left, his faithful assistant, Melissa. To his right, a tall, steely-eyed, black-haired female by the name of Lavender. The females carry laptops, both with data readouts on them. Ahead, sixteen people are inserting sixteen different slabs of stone into sixteen indentations on the ground, making sure they are placed into the proper locations.

Giovanni holds his hands behind his back as he watches, and grins. Letting Team Galactic proceed as they had was already paying off. Cyrus was intelligent, to be sure, but with his eyes set on such low goals, his eyes were blind to Team Rocket's spies as they gathered information on the organization and their work. While they were busy gathering plates and trying to pinpoint the location of Spear Pillar, every squad in the Sinnoh branch, each led by one of the sixteen individuals, were scouring all of the region in search of the plates before him. When each team had the total amount of plates, Team Rocket initiated the infiltration of Team Galactic's base in Veilstone City. It was a quick, though rather hostile raid on the base in which they took the plates and copied their research data, before exiting, leaving them back at square one.

He glances over at Lavender. "And you are sure this will work."

"Yes, sir." she states, in a cold, but stern voice. "My research indicates that the sixteen plates, coupled with the correct tune played through the ancient flute, will cause the spears to resonate and open the gateway, as in the legend."

He gives a nod in response, and looks forward. "If all are prepared, then play the tune." he instructs.

"Yes, sir." Lavender says, and begins to type on the computer. A few tones begin to play from the computer, which seem to resonate with the plates placed in the ground. "Corresponding tunes locked. Resonating notes identified. Compiling score." she says, as the laptop cycles through various combinations of the different tones, then produces a page of music estimated to cause the strongest response from them. "Score found. The estimated success at this corresponding to the correct resonance sequence is eighty-five point three two one for eight five nine."

"Score confirmed uploaded." Crystal says, as she sets down the laptop. "Good thing I learned how to play the flute when I was five.." She lets out a small sigh, and picks up the flute, which shines a brilliant azure blue. She places it to her lips, and begins playing.

Ahead of her, the sixteen members step back, as the plates begin to glow brightly in tune with each note she plays. Within moments, the tune quiets down, and all goes silent. At first, it appears as though they may have the wrong sequence, but the light from each plate runs through the cracks in the ground, before being absorbed by the pillars, one light to a pillar. They glow brightly then fade, then brightly then fade, then finally, all shine at once with a blinding light. The light soon fades, revealing a long, winding staircase of floating glass, extending into the heavens.

Giovanni grins widely. Apparently, indulging in local Sinnoh legend was about to pay off, and in a major way. Cautiously, he begins his ascent, finding a surprising amount of traction, despite the stairs being not but glass. With the other eighteen members, he walks fearlessly upwards, towards the Hall of Origin, to face none other than the creator of all itself. After all, in order to make it anywhere in this world, one had to set their sights high, and Giovanni could think of no goal higher than capturing the pokemon of creation. He was sure, win or lose, it would be a battle remembered for ages to come.

The End..


End file.
